White Pine Capital LLC Purchases 161,893 Shares of AXT, Inc. (NASDAQ:AXTI)

White Pine Capital LLC raised its stake in AXT, Inc. (NASDAQ:AXTI) by 35.9% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 612,630 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after acquiring an additional 161,893 shares during the period. White Pine Capital LLC owned approximately 1.40% of AXT worth $1,470,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Brookstone Capital Management purchased a new stake in shares of AXT in the fourth quarter worth $37,000. James Investment Research Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of AXT in the third quarter worth $38,000. Pacific Ridge Capital Partners LLC boosted its position in shares of AXT by 1.8% during the third quarter. Pacific Ridge Capital Partners LLC now owns 1,232,069 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $2,957,000 after buying an additional 21,973 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC purchased a new stake in shares of AXT during the third quarter valued at $60,000. Finally, Algert Global LLC purchased a new stake in shares of AXT during the third quarter valued at $85,000. 49.52% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently commented on AXTI. StockNews.com cut AXT from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, March 2nd. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $6.00 price objective on shares of AXT in a research report on Monday, April 8th. B. Riley increased their price objective on AXT from $3.80 to $5.50 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, April 5th. Craig Hallum increased their price objective on AXT from $3.75 to $5.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $5.00 price objective on shares of AXT in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, AXT presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $5.30.

AXT Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ AXTI traded up $0.07 during trading on Friday, hitting $2.97. The company had a trading volume of 507,779 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,172,486. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $3.98 and a 200 day simple moving average of $2.90. AXT, Inc. has a 12 month low of $1.89 and a 12 month high of $5.64. The firm has a market capitalization of $131.42 million, a P/E ratio of -6.91 and a beta of 2.24.

AXT (NASDAQ:AXTI) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 22nd. The semiconductor company reported ($0.09) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.14) by $0.05. The business had revenue of $20.43 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.62 million. AXT had a negative return on equity of 7.80% and a negative net margin of 23.59%. As a group, analysts predict that AXT, Inc. will post -0.1 EPS for the current year.

AXT Company Profile

AXT, Inc designs, develops, manufactures, and distributes compound and single element semiconductor substrates. The company offers indium phosphide for use in data center connectivity using light/lasers, high-speed data transfer in data centers, 5G communications, fiber optic lasers and detectors, consumer devices, passive optical networks, silicon photonics, photonic integrated circuits, thermo-photovoltaics, RF amplifier and switching, infrared light-emitting diode (LEDS) motion control, lidar for robotics and autonomous vehicles, and infrared thermal imaging.