AXT (NASDAQ:AXTI) Shares Gap Down – What’s Next?

Shares of AXT Inc (NASDAQ:AXTI) gapped down before the market opened on Thursday. The stock had previously closed at $61.59, but opened at $57.51. AXT shares last traded at $55.3630, with a volume of 3,096,789 shares traded.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts recently commented on AXTI shares. Zacks Research downgraded shares of AXT from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 29th. UBS Group set a $90.00 target price on shares of AXT in a research report on Friday, July 31st. Needham & Company LLC raised shares of AXT from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $90.00 target price for the company in a research note on Friday, July 31st. B. Riley Financial decreased their target price on shares of AXT from $73.00 to $52.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, July 28th. Finally, Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of AXT from a “sell (d-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a report on Friday, August 14th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, AXT currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $77.00.

AXT Stock Down 11.1%

The stock has a market cap of $3.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 2,573.50 and a beta of 1.86. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $70.26 and its two-hundred day moving average is $76.05.

AXT (NASDAQ:AXTI) 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. AXT had a net margin of 3.23% and a return on equity of 0.96%. The company had revenue of $47.59 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $34.08 million. AXT has set its Q3 2026 guidance at 0.300-0.320 EPS. Analysts anticipate that AXT Inc will post 0.80 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at AXT

In related news, Director Leonard Leblanc sold 4,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $96.07, for a total value of $384,280.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 113,129 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,868,303.03. This represents a 3.42% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Corporate insiders own 5.97% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of AXT

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. BlackRock Inc. bought a new stake in shares of AXT during the 2nd quarter worth about $365,607,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its stake in shares of AXT by 161.9% in 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. Bank of America Corp DE raised its stake in shares of AXT by 112.0% in the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 776,300 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $44,234,000 after acquiring an additional 410,181 shares in the last quarter. Ariose Capital Management Ltd bought a new position in shares of AXT in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $39,061,000. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP acquired a new stake in AXT in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $25,911,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 49.52% of the company’s stock.

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.