BNP Paribas Financial Markets Sells 119,899 Shares of Axcelis Technologies, Inc. $ACLS

Key Points

• BNP Paribas Financial Markets reduced its Axcelis Technologies stake by 42.2% in the fourth quarter, selling 119,899 shares and leaving it with 164,027 shares valued at about $13.2 million.
• Axcelis reported quarterly earnings of $0.72 per share, topping estimates by a penny, while revenue rose 3.3% year over year to $198.96 million. The company also issued Q2 2026 guidance of 0.900 EPS.
• Recent insider activity has been negative, with CEO Russell Low and VP Todd Sutton both selling shares, and analysts currently rate the stock a Hold on average with a $116.25 price target.

BNP Paribas Financial Markets cut its stake in shares of Axcelis Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:ACLS - Free Report) by 42.2% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 164,027 shares of the semiconductor company's stock after selling 119,899 shares during the quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets owned about 0.53% of Axcelis Technologies worth $13,178,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Victory Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Axcelis Technologies by 9.6% during the third quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 972,162 shares of the semiconductor company's stock valued at $90,243,000 after acquiring an additional 85,407 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in Axcelis Technologies by 4.6% in the 3rd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 769,612 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $75,143,000 after buying an additional 34,153 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its holdings in Axcelis Technologies by 7.5% in the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 635,393 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $31,560,000 after buying an additional 44,275 shares in the last quarter. Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC increased its holdings in Axcelis Technologies by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC now owns 443,863 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $43,339,000 after buying an additional 1,798 shares in the last quarter. Finally, LSV Asset Management increased its holdings in Axcelis Technologies by 36.4% in the 4th quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 429,500 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $34,506,000 after buying an additional 114,600 shares in the last quarter. 89.98% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Axcelis Technologies Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:ACLS opened at $147.16 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 45.84, a PEG ratio of 10.42 and a beta of 1.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 2.99 and a current ratio of 4.59. The stock's 50-day simple moving average is $134.84 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $103.53. Axcelis Technologies, Inc. has a 52-week low of $61.50 and a 52-week high of $171.61.

Axcelis Technologies (NASDAQ:ACLS - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 7th. The semiconductor company reported $0.72 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.71 by $0.01. Axcelis Technologies had a return on equity of 12.19% and a net margin of 11.93%.The firm had revenue of $198.96 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $195.03 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.88 EPS. The business's quarterly revenue was up 3.3% on a year-over-year basis. Axcelis Technologies has set its Q2 2026 guidance at 0.900- EPS. Analysts expect that Axcelis Technologies, Inc. will post 3.21 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Russell Low sold 7,468 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $156.75, for a total value of $1,170,609.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 123,570 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $19,369,597.50. The trade was a 5.70% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, VP Todd Sutton sold 2,574 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $163.89, for a total value of $421,852.86. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president directly owned 7,817 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,281,128.13. This represents a 24.77% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 36,039 shares of company stock worth $5,461,394. 0.49% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently commented on ACLS. B. Riley Financial upgraded Axcelis Technologies from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $150.00 price objective for the company in a report on Monday, April 20th. Weiss Ratings downgraded Axcelis Technologies from a "hold (c)" rating to a "hold (c-)" rating in a report on Tuesday, May 12th. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded Axcelis Technologies from a "strong sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Monday, April 20th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Axcelis Technologies has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $116.25.

Axcelis Technologies Profile

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.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.