AXT (NASDAQ:AXTI) Shares Climb 6% – Still a Buy?

AXT Inc (NASDAQ:AXTI)’s share price shot up 6% during mid-day trading on Thursday. The stock traded as high as $81.47 and last traded at $82.0580. 2,463,430 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 76% from the average daily volume of 10,153,887 shares. The stock had previously closed at $77.41.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AXTI has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Northland Securities set a $125.00 target price on shares of AXT in a report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Needham & Company LLC upgraded shares of AXT from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $90.00 price target for the company in a report on Friday, July 31st. Weiss Ratings raised shares of AXT from a “sell (d-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research report on Friday, August 14th. UBS Group set a $90.00 price objective on AXT in a report on Friday, July 31st. Finally, B. Riley Financial lowered their price objective on AXT from $73.00 to $52.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, July 28th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $77.00.

AXT Stock Up 5.4%

The company has a market cap of $5.35 billion, a PE ratio of 4,080.55 and a beta of 1.92. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $67.17 and a 200-day simple moving average of $74.94.

AXT (NASDAQ:AXTI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The semiconductor company reported $0.19 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.07 by $0.12. AXT had a return on equity of 0.96% and a net margin of 3.23%.The business had revenue of $47.59 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $34.08 million. AXT has set its Q3 2026 guidance at 0.300-0.320 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that AXT Inc will post 0.8 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other AXT news, Director Leonard Leblanc sold 4,000 shares of AXT stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $96.07, for a total value of $384,280.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 113,129 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,868,303.03. The trade was a 3.42% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 5.97% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. NewEdge Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of AXT by 79.0% in the second quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 3,158 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $228,000 after purchasing an additional 1,394 shares in the last quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC lifted its holdings in AXT by 1,347.0% during the 2nd quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC now owns 312,999 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $22,561,000 after buying an additional 291,368 shares in the last quarter. Arizona State Retirement System boosted its position in AXT by 10.4% in the 2nd quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 15,928 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $1,148,000 after buying an additional 1,505 shares during the period. Nykredit A S purchased a new position in AXT in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $152,000. Finally, Amundi acquired a new position in shares of AXT in the second quarter worth $200,000. 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.