TLDR
- AXT stock dropped roughly 16% after a massive year-to-date rally of 548%
- CEO Morris Young offloaded more than $22 million in stock, spooking investors
- Director Jesse Chen also sold over $664,000 in stock on June 4
- The stock was trading at a steep premium to the analyst consensus target of $43.80, against a price near $89–$108
- AXT’s annual meeting, delayed for lack of quorum, was reconvened on June 4
AXT Inc (AXTI) stock fell sharply on June 5, dropping around $16.95 to trade near $89.04. That’s a pullback of roughly 16% in a single session.
The drop comes after an extraordinary run. AXT stock is still up 548% year-to-date, which had pushed the price well above where most analysts think it should be.
The immediate trigger appears to be insider selling. CEO Morris Young sold more than $22 million in stock, a move that rattled investors who had been riding the rally.
Director Jesse Chen also sold 6,133 stock units on June 4 at an average price of $108.28, pocketing around $664,081. That trade alone reduced his position by over 6%, though he still holds 94,193 units worth roughly $10.2 million.
Chen has been a consistent seller. Over the prior months, he offloaded tens of thousands of units at prices ranging from roughly $37 to $111 per unit.
Valuation Gap Catching Up
The stock’s biggest problem right now may simply be the price versus where analysts think it belongs. The consensus price target sits at just $43.80, a fraction of where the stock was trading before Friday’s drop.
Northland Securities has an outlier target of $125.00, while B. Riley sits at $21.00 with a “neutral” rating. Wedbush, despite raising its target to $28.00, rates the stock “outperform” — still well below recent trading prices.
Two analysts hold Buy ratings, two say Hold, and one rates it a Sell. That mixed picture hasn’t done much to reassure the market after insider selling of this scale.
Earnings and Guidance
AXT reported its most recent quarterly results on April 30. The company posted a loss of $0.01 per share, which beat the consensus estimate of a $0.04 loss. Revenue came in at $26.92 million, just ahead of the $26.22 million analysts expected.
Looking ahead, AXT guided for Q2 2026 earnings of $0.06 to $0.08 per share — a positive signal that the company expects to turn profitable in the coming quarter.
For the full year, analysts currently expect AXT to post $0.20 EPS.
The company also held its annual meeting on June 4 after it had been delayed due to a lack of quorum. The reconvening added to the news flow around the stock at an already sensitive time.
Institutional investors still own about 49.52% of the company. Recent buyers include Ariose Capital Management, which took a new position worth approximately $39 million in Q1, and Assenagon Asset Management, which grew its stake by 161.9% to over 1.5 million units.
The 52-week range for AXTI runs from $1.72 to a high of $143.16, with Friday’s close at $89.04 sitting between those extremes.
The stock’s 50-day moving average is $88.78, and its 200-day moving average is $46.83.
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