Short Interest in AXT, Inc. (NASDAQ:AXTI) Increases By 5.6%

AXT, Inc. (NASDAQ:AXTI) saw a significant increase in short interest in the month of November. As of November 30th, there was short interest totalling 656,700 shares, an increase of 5.6% from the November 15th total of 622,100 shares. Approximately 1.6% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 376,500 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 1.7 days.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently issued reports on AXTI. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and set a $5.00 target price on shares of AXT in a research note on Friday, November 1st. StockNews.com cut AXT from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Finally, Northland Securities cut their price objective on shares of AXT from $6.00 to $5.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, November 1st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $5.30.

Institutional Trading of AXT

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Renaissance Technologies LLC grew its holdings in shares of AXT by 1,142.1% during the 2nd 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 in the last quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC increased 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 worth $919,000 after purchasing an additional 243,226 shares during the last quarter. Systematic Financial Management LP lifted its holdings in AXT by 13.0% during the 3rd quarter. Systematic Financial Management LP now owns 1,477,169 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $3,575,000 after purchasing an additional 169,406 shares during the last quarter. Legato Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in AXT in the 2nd quarter valued at $503,000. Finally, Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC bought a new stake in shares of AXT during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $468,000. 49.52% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

AXT Stock Up 4.1 %

Shares of NASDAQ:AXTI opened at $2.31 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $103.37 million, a P/E ratio of -9.24 and a beta of 2.15. AXT has a 52 week low of $1.73 and a 52 week high of $5.64. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $2.26 and a 200-day simple moving average of $2.75.

AXT (NASDAQ:AXTI) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 for 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 in the prior year, the firm earned ($0.14) EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that AXT will post -0.22 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.