AXT (NASDAQ:AXTI) Shares Gap Down – Here’s What Happened

AXT Inc (NASDAQ:AXTI)’s stock price gapped down before the market opened on Thursday. The stock had previously closed at $61.59, but opened at $57.51. AXT shares last traded at $55.3630, with a volume of 3,096,789 shares trading hands.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AXTI has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Zacks Research cut AXT from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 29th. Needham & Company LLC upgraded AXT from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $90.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Friday, July 31st. UBS Group set a $90.00 target price on AXT in a research note on Friday, July 31st. Weiss Ratings upgraded AXT from a “sell (d-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a report on Friday, August 14th. Finally, B. Riley Financial dropped their price target on AXT from $73.00 to $52.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, July 28th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $77.00.

AXT Trading Down 7.3%

The company has a market cap of $3.74 billion, a PE ratio of 2,847.95 and a beta of 1.86. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $71.35 and a two-hundred day moving average of $76.24.

AXT (NASDAQ:AXTI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The semiconductor company reported $0.19 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.07 by $0.12. AXT had a net margin of 3.23% and a return on equity of 0.96%. The company had revenue of $47.59 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $34.08 million. AXT has set its Q3 2026 guidance at 0.300-0.320 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that AXT Inc will post 0.80 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at AXT

In other news, Director Leonard Leblanc sold 4,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $96.07, for a total transaction of $384,280.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 113,129 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,868,303.03. This represents a 3.42% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 5.97% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of AXT

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in AXTI. Dupree Financial Group LLC increased its holdings in AXT by 2.9% in the 3rd quarter. Dupree Financial Group LLC now owns 14,349 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $1,111,000 after acquiring an additional 400 shares during the last quarter. Kestra Advisory Services LLC lifted its stake in AXT by 6.8% in the 1st quarter. Kestra Advisory Services LLC now owns 6,408 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $365,000 after purchasing an additional 408 shares in the last quarter. American Capital Advisory LLC bought a new position in shares of AXT during the 1st quarter valued at about $27,000. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC bought a new position in shares of AXT during the 1st quarter valued at about $31,000. Finally, Global Retirement Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of AXT during the 2nd quarter valued at about $55,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 49.52% of the company’s stock.

AXT Company Profile

AXT, Inc (NASDAQ: AXTI) develops and manufactures compound semiconductor substrate materials used in high-performance electronic and optoelectronic devices. Its primary products include gallium arsenide (GaAs), indium phosphide (InP), and germanium substrates, which serve as the foundation for semiconductor components.

The company’s substrates are used in applications such as fiber-optic communications, data-center and telecommunications equipment, wireless infrastructure, radio-frequency devices, lasers, light-emitting diodes, and certain solar cells.