Axcelis Technologies (NASDAQ:ACLS) Cut to “Hold” at Wall Street Zen

by · The Cerbat Gem

Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Axcelis Technologies (NASDAQ:ACLS – Free Report) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note published on Saturday.

A number of other equities analysts also recently commented on the company. Zacks Research downgraded Axcelis Technologies from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, December 5th. Benchmark upgraded Axcelis Technologies from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $105.00 price target on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 2nd. DA Davidson boosted their price target on shares of Axcelis Technologies from $90.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 2nd. Bank of America cut shares of Axcelis Technologies from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $81.00 to $90.00 in a research report on Monday, October 13th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Axcelis Technologies in a report on Monday, December 22nd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $98.80.

View Our Latest Report on ACLS

Axcelis Technologies Price Performance

Axcelis Technologies stock opened at $89.04 on Friday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $83.39 and a 200-day simple moving average of $81.45. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.05 and a beta of 1.73. The company has a quick ratio of 3.32, a current ratio of 4.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. Axcelis Technologies has a 52-week low of $40.40 and a 52-week high of $102.93.

Axcelis Technologies (NASDAQ:ACLS – Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 21st. The semiconductor company reported $1.71 earnings per share for the quarter. The firm had revenue of $252.42 million for the quarter. Axcelis Technologies had a net margin of 15.93% and a return on equity of 14.58%. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Axcelis Technologies will post 2.55 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Axcelis Technologies

In other news, EVP Gerald M. Blumenstock sold 3,034 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $89.46, for a total transaction of $271,421.64. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 18,661 shares in the company, valued at $1,669,413.06. This trade represents a 13.98% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Jorge Titinger sold 2,000 shares of Axcelis Technologies stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $86.05, for a total value of $172,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 7,477 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $643,395.85. The trade was a 21.10% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. 0.48% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Axcelis Technologies

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of ACLS. American Century Companies Inc. grew its stake in Axcelis Technologies by 45.5% during the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,659,463 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $115,648,000 after purchasing an additional 518,968 shares in the last quarter. LSV Asset Management purchased a new position in shares of Axcelis Technologies in the 3rd quarter valued at about $30,747,000. Invesco Ltd. grew its position in shares of Axcelis Technologies by 176.6% during the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 386,735 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $37,761,000 after buying an additional 246,939 shares in the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Axcelis Technologies by 143.8% during the third quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 261,776 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $25,560,000 after buying an additional 154,381 shares during the period. Finally, Boston Partners increased its stake in shares of Axcelis Technologies by 42.3% during the second quarter. Boston Partners now owns 474,043 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $33,616,000 after buying an additional 141,004 shares during the period. 89.98% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Axcelis Technologies Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

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.

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