AXT (NASDAQ:AXTI) Stock Falls 5.9% - Here's Why

Key Points

• AXT shares fell 5.9% to about $75.08, with trading volume roughly 78% below the average session volume.
• Analyst sentiment remains mixed: the consensus rating is “Hold” with a $77 price target, following target cuts from B. Riley and a rating downgrade from Zacks, alongside bullish upgrades from Needham.
• Despite the stock decline, AXT’s latest quarterly results exceeded expectations, reporting $0.19 in EPS versus $0.07 expected and $47.59 million in revenue versus $34.08 million forecast.

AXT Inc (NASDAQ:AXTI - Get Free Report) shares were down 5.9% during trading on Thursday. The company traded as low as $73.90 and last traded at $75.0780. 2,180,554 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 78% from the average session volume of 10,071,744 shares. The stock had previously closed at $79.79.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on AXTI shares. B. Riley Financial lowered their target price on AXT from $73.00 to $52.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, July 28th. Needham & Company LLC upgraded AXT from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $90.00 price target on the stock in a report on Friday, July 31st. Zacks Research lowered shares of AXT from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 29th. UBS Group set a $90.00 target price on shares of AXT in a research report on Friday, July 31st. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised 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 assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $77.00.

AXT Price Performance

The firm has a market cap of $4.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 3,685.90 and a beta of 1.86. The company has a fifty day moving average of $70.98 and a 200-day moving average of $76.13.

AXT (NASDAQ:AXTI - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The semiconductor company reported $0.19 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.07 by $0.12. The firm had revenue of $47.59 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $34.08 million. AXT had a net margin of 3.23% and a return on equity of 0.96%. AXT has set its Q3 2026 guidance at 0.300-0.320 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that AXT Inc will post 0.8 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Leonard Leblanc sold 4,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction 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 sale, the director directly owned 113,129 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,868,303.03. The trade was a 3.42% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 5.97% of the company's stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On AXT

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in AXT in the second quarter worth about $365,607,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its position in AXT by 161.9% during the 1st quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,505,354 shares of the semiconductor company's stock valued at $85,775,000 after acquiring an additional 930,526 shares in the last quarter. Ariose Capital Management Ltd purchased a new position in shares of AXT during the 1st quarter worth approximately $39,061,000. Bank of America Corp DE purchased a new position in shares of AXT during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $46,062,000. Finally, Monolith Management Ltd bought a new position in shares of AXT in the 4th quarter worth approximately $7,308,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 49.52% of the company's stock.

AXT Company Profile

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.

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