AXT (NASDAQ:AXTI) Stock Price Up 6% – Still a Buy?

AXT Inc (NASDAQ:AXTI)’s stock price traded up 6% during mid-day trading on Thursday. The company traded as high as $81.47 and last traded at $82.0580. 2,463,430 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 76% from the average session 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 research reports. B. Riley Financial cut their price target on AXT from $73.00 to $52.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, July 28th. Zacks Research cut AXT from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Needham & Company LLC raised AXT from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $90.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Friday, July 31st. Northland Securities set a $125.00 target price on shares of AXT in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. Finally, Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of AXT from a “sell (d-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research note on Friday, August 14th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $77.00.

AXT Stock Performance

The company’s 50-day moving average price is $67.17 and its 200-day moving average price is $74.94. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.35 billion, a PE ratio of 4,080.55 and a beta of 1.92.

AXT (NASDAQ:AXTI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The semiconductor company reported $0.19 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 analyst estimates of $34.08 million. AXT has set its Q3 2026 guidance at 0.300-0.320 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that AXT Inc will post 0.8 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at AXT

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

Institutional Investors Weigh In On AXT

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. NewEdge Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of AXT by 79.0% during the second quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 3,158 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $228,000 after acquiring an additional 1,394 shares during the last quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC raised its position in AXT by 1,347.0% in the 2nd quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC now owns 312,999 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $22,561,000 after purchasing an additional 291,368 shares during the last quarter. Arizona State Retirement System raised 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 purchasing an additional 1,505 shares during the last quarter. Nykredit A S acquired a new stake in AXT during the 2nd quarter worth $152,000. Finally, Amundi acquired a new stake in AXT during the 2nd quarter worth $200,000. 49.52% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About AXT

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.