Axcelis Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: ACLS) stock jumped 7.69% on Thursday to $151.89 against a previous-day closing price of $141.05. With 0.71 million shares changed hands, the volume of the stock remained heavier than its average volume of 0.57 million shares. During the session, the Semiconductor Equipment & Materials company that operates in wider Technology sector, reached to the highest price of $153.33 whereas the lowest price it dropped to was $145.66. The 52-week range on ACLS shows that it touched its highest point at $145.88 and its lowest point at $46.41 during that stretch. It currently has a 1-year price target of $147.20. Beta for the stock currently stands at 1.69.
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Price Performance and Earnings:
Stock performance is one of the indicators that investors use to determine whether they will profit from a stock. The price performance of ACLS was up-trending over the past week, with a rise of 5.10%, but this was up by 28.71% over a month. Three-month performance surged to 23.02% while six-month performance rose 93.00%. The stock gained 180.45% in the past year, while it has gained 91.39% so far this year. A look at the trailing 12-month EPS for ACLS yields 5.67 with Next year EPS estimates of 7.36. For the next quarter, that number is 1.47. This implies an EPS growth rate of 89.60% for this year and 15.05% for next year. EPS is expected to grow by 20.00% annually over the next five years; however, over the past five years, the company experienced an annual growth rate of 9.10%.
Float and Shares Shorts:
At present, 32.74 million ACLS shares are outstanding with a float of 32.19 million shares on hand for trading. On Apr 27, 2023, short shares totaled 1.59 million, which was 4.85% higher than short shares on Mar 30, 2023. In addition to Ms. Mary G. Puma as the firm’s Exec. Chairperson, Dr. Russell J. Low Ph.D. serves as its CEO, Pres & Director.
Institutional Ownership:
Through their ownership of 92.52% of ACLS’s outstanding shares, institutional investors have majority control over the company. Other institutions hold 56.61% of ACLS, in contrast to 32.51% held by mutual funds. Shares owned by individuals account for 2.02%. As the largest shareholder in ACLS with 14.64% of the stake, BlackRock Fund Advisors holds 4,790,741 shares worth 4,790,741. A second-largest stockholder of ACLS, The Vanguard Group, Inc., holds 3,432,814 shares, controlling over 10.49% of the firm’s shares. PRIMECAP Management Co. is the third largest shareholder in ACLS, holding 1,165,226 shares or 3.56% stake. With a 7.27% stake in ACLS, the iShares Core S&P Small Cap ETF is the largest stakeholder. A total of 2,378,056 shares are owned by the mutual fund manager. The PRIMECAP Odyssey Aggressive Growt, which owns about 3.35% of ACLS stock, is the second-largest Mutual Fund holder. It holds 1,095,726 shares valued at 129.62 million. Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF holds 3.11% of the stake in ACLS, owning 1,017,355 shares worth 120.35 million.
An Overview of Recent Financials:
Understanding a company as a customer does not mean you will understand it as an investor. The wise investor uses quantitative research to analyze metrics such as revenue, net income, and earnings. In its fiscal quarter reported on Mar 30, 2023, ACLS reported revenue of $221.18M and operating income of $54.15M. The EBITDA in the recently reported quarter was $49.45M and diluted EPS was $1.32.
Analysts Ratings:
Reading analyst opinions is an effective way to decide where to invest, and there are several opinions available for ACLS since 0 analysts follow the stock currently. In the same way, a target price assigned to a stock can also reveal much about its potential. With ACLS analysts setting a high price target of $165.00 and a low target of $140.00, the average target price over the next 12 months is $147.20. Based on these targets, ACLS could surge 8.63% to reach the target high and fall by -7.83% to reach the target low. Reaching the average price target will result in a decline of -3.09% from current levels.
EPS: Estimates vs Actual
It is also common to use earnings estimates to evaluate a firm’s growth potential and to determine trading strategy.
Summary of Insider Activity:
Insiders traded ACLS stock several times over the past three months with 0 Buys and 10 Sells. In these transactions, 0 shares were bought while 30,009 shares were sold. The number of buy transactions has increased to 1 while that of sell transactions has risen to 49 over the past year. The total number of shares bought during that period was 2,825 while 222,755 shares were sold.
