AXT, Inc. (NASDAQ:AXTI) Short Interest Down 7.2% in December

AXT, Inc. (NASDAQ:AXTI) saw a significant decrease in short interest in the month of December. As of December 15th, there was short interest totalling 609,400 shares, a decrease of 7.2% from the November 30th total of 656,700 shares. Approximately 1.5% of the company’s stock are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 376,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 1.6 days.

AXT Price Performance

AXTI traded down $0.05 during trading on Monday, hitting $2.23. The company had a trading volume of 229,330 shares, compared to its average volume of 939,067. AXT has a 1-year low of $1.73 and a 1-year high of $5.64. The company has a market cap of $99.79 million, a PE ratio of -8.92 and a beta of 2.15. The business has a 50-day moving average of $2.20 and a 200-day moving average of $2.65.

AXT (NASDAQ:AXTI) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The semiconductor company reported ($0.07) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.06) by ($0.01). The company had revenue of $23.65 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $25.98 million. AXT had a negative net margin of 10.73% and a negative return on equity of 4.58%. During the same quarter last year, the company posted ($0.14) EPS. Research analysts forecast that AXT will post -0.22 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the company. Northland Securities decreased their price target on AXT from $6.00 to $5.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, November 1st. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $5.00 price target on shares of AXT in a report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of AXT from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Monday, September 30th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, AXT has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $5.30.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in AXTI. Acadian Asset Management LLC raised its position in shares of AXT by 833.3% during the 2nd quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 272,416 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $919,000 after acquiring an additional 243,226 shares in the last quarter. ClariVest Asset Management LLC increased its stake in AXT by 21.1% during the second quarter. ClariVest Asset Management LLC now owns 195,920 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $662,000 after purchasing an additional 34,120 shares during the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC raised its holdings in shares of AXT by 1,142.1% during the second quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 377,600 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $1,276,000 after purchasing an additional 347,200 shares during the period. XTX Topco Ltd lifted its position in shares of AXT by 135.1% in the 2nd quarter. XTX Topco Ltd now owns 173,726 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $587,000 after buying an additional 99,840 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC acquired a new position in shares of AXT in the 2nd quarter valued at about $468,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 49.52% of the company’s stock.

About AXT

AXT, Inc designs, develops, manufactures, and distributes compound and single element semiconductor substrates. The company offers indium phosphide for use in data center connectivity using light/lasers, high-speed data transfer in data centers, 5G communications, fiber optic lasers and detectors, consumer devices, passive optical networks, silicon photonics, photonic integrated circuits, thermo-photovoltaics, RF amplifier and switching, infrared light-emitting diode (LEDS) motion control, lidar for robotics and autonomous vehicles, and infrared thermal imaging.