Short Interest in AXT, Inc. (NASDAQ:AXTI) Expands By 9.0%

AXT, Inc. (NASDAQ:AXTI) was the recipient of a large increase in short interest during the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 1,930,000 shares, an increase of 9.0% from the March 15th total of 1,770,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 2,380,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 0.8 days. Currently, 4.8% of the shares of the stock are sold short.

AXT Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ AXTI opened at $3.04 on Wednesday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $3.90 and a 200-day simple moving average of $2.89. The company has a market capitalization of $134.52 million, a P/E ratio of -7.07 and a beta of 2.24. AXT has a 1 year low of $1.89 and a 1 year high of $5.64.

AXT (NASDAQ:AXTI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 22nd. The semiconductor company reported ($0.09) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.14) by $0.05. The business had revenue of $20.43 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.62 million. AXT had a negative net margin of 23.59% and a negative return on equity of 7.80%. As a group, research analysts expect that AXT will post -0.1 EPS for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On AXT

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. First Wilshire Securities Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of AXT by 30.8% during the 4th quarter. First Wilshire Securities Management Inc. now owns 3,306,715 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $7,936,000 after purchasing an additional 779,548 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of AXT by 14.3% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,275,457 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $5,461,000 after purchasing an additional 285,113 shares during the period. Needham Investment Management LLC boosted its position in shares of AXT by 18.2% during the 4th quarter. Needham Investment Management LLC now owns 1,460,450 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $6,397,000 after purchasing an additional 225,000 shares during the period. Royce & Associates LP boosted its position in shares of AXT by 1.9% during the 1st quarter. Royce & Associates LP now owns 1,244,200 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $4,952,000 after purchasing an additional 23,200 shares during the period. Finally, Pacific Ridge Capital Partners LLC boosted its position in shares of AXT by 1.8% during the 3rd quarter. Pacific Ridge Capital Partners LLC now owns 1,232,069 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $2,957,000 after purchasing an additional 21,973 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 49.52% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. B. Riley upped their price target on shares of AXT from $3.80 to $5.50 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, April 5th. Craig Hallum upped their price target on shares of AXT from $3.75 to $5.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of AXT from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, March 2nd. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $5.00 price objective on shares of AXT in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. Finally, Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $6.00 price objective on shares of AXT in a report on Monday, April 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $5.30.

AXT Company Profile

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.