Axcelis Technologies, Inc. $ACLS Stake Boosted by Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co.

Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. increased its position in shares of Axcelis Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:ACLS) by 8,566.4% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 116,997 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after purchasing an additional 115,647 shares during the quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co.’s holdings in Axcelis Technologies were worth $9,400,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in Axcelis Technologies by 9.6% in the third quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 972,162 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $90,243,000 after buying an additional 85,407 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in Axcelis Technologies by 4.6% in the third quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 769,612 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $75,143,000 after buying an additional 34,153 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its stake in Axcelis Technologies by 7.5% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 635,393 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $31,560,000 after buying an additional 44,275 shares during the last quarter. Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC lifted its stake in Axcelis Technologies by 0.4% in the third quarter. Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC now owns 443,863 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $43,339,000 after buying an additional 1,798 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in Axcelis Technologies by 176.6% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 386,735 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $37,761,000 after buying an additional 246,939 shares during the last quarter. 89.98% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on ACLS shares. Weiss Ratings cut Axcelis Technologies from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 12th. Zacks Research raised Axcelis Technologies from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, April 20th. Finally, B. Riley Financial raised Axcelis Technologies from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $150.00 price target on the stock in a report on Monday, April 20th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $116.25.

Axcelis Technologies Price Performance

Shares of ACLS opened at $152.51 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 47.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 11.91 and a beta of 1.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 2.99 and a current ratio of 4.59. Axcelis Technologies, Inc. has a one year low of $55.93 and a one year high of $171.61. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $119.70 and its 200-day moving average is $97.89.

Axcelis Technologies (NASDAQ:ACLS) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The semiconductor company reported $0.72 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.71 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $198.96 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $195.03 million. Axcelis Technologies had a return on equity of 12.19% and a net margin of 11.93%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 3.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.88 earnings per share. Axcelis Technologies has set its Q2 2026 guidance at 0.900- EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Axcelis Technologies, Inc. will post 2.86 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Axcelis Technologies

In other news, VP Todd Sutton sold 2,574 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $163.89, for a total transaction of $421,852.86. Following the transaction, the vice president directly owned 7,817 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,281,128.13. This trade represents a 24.77% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director John T. Kurtzweil sold 3,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $138.79, for a total value of $485,765.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 32,990 shares in the company, valued at $4,578,682.10. This trade represents a 9.59% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last three months, insiders sold 30,366 shares of company stock valued at $4,570,427. 0.49% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

About Axcelis Technologies

Axcelis Technologies, Inc is a leading developer and manufacturer of ion implantation and cleaning equipment used in the fabrication of semiconductor chips. The company specializes in high-current, medium-current and high-energy ion implantation systems, which are critical for introducing precisely controlled dopants into silicon wafers. Axcelis also offers plasma-based cleaning and dry strip tools that support advanced process nodes in logic, memory and power device manufacturing.

The company’s product portfolio encompasses single-wafer and multi-wafer cluster tools designed to deliver high throughput, accuracy and uniformity for semiconductor process steps.