Axcelis Technologies Inc (NASDAQ: ACLS) stock fell -0.27% on Monday to $131.67 against a previous-day closing price of $132.02. With 0.79 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 $132.47 whereas the lowest price it dropped to was $130.79. The 52-week range on ACLS shows that it touched its highest point at $201.00 and its lowest point at $74.21 during that stretch. It currently has a 1-year price target of $180.80. Beta for the stock currently stands at 1.74.
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 1.76%, but this was down by -8.94% over a month. Three-month performance dropped to -23.43% while six-month performance fell -8.55%. The stock gained 72.10% in the past year, while it has gained 65.91% so far this year. A look at the trailing 12-month EPS for ACLS yields 6.99 with Next year EPS estimates of 8.22. For the next quarter, that number is 2.00. This implies an EPS growth rate of 33.15% for this year and 13.09% 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 7.53%.
Float and Shares Shorts:
At present, 32.77 million ACLS shares are outstanding with a float of 32.20 million shares on hand for trading. On Oct 30, 2023, short shares totaled 1.55 million, which was 4.74% higher than short shares on Sep 28, 2023. In addition to Ms. Mary G. Puma as the firm’s Executive Chairperson, Dr. Russell J. Low Ph.D. serves as its CEO, President & Director.
Institutional Ownership:
Through their ownership of 90.62% of ACLS’s outstanding shares, institutional investors have majority control over the company. Other institutions hold 57.80% of ACLS, in contrast to 33.25% held by mutual funds. Shares owned by individuals account for 2.21%. As the largest shareholder in ACLS with 15.75% of the stake, BlackRock Fund Advisors holds 5,167,476 shares worth 5,167,476. A second-largest stockholder of ACLS, The Vanguard Group, Inc., holds 3,853,087 shares, controlling over 11.74% of the firm’s shares. SSgA Funds Management, Inc. is the third largest shareholder in ACLS, holding 1,146,572 shares or 3.49% stake. With a 6.73% stake in ACLS, the iShares Core S&P Small Cap ETF is the largest stakeholder. A total of 2,207,855 shares are owned by the mutual fund manager. The Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF, which owns about 3.12% of ACLS stock, is the second-largest Mutual Fund holder. It holds 1,022,397 shares valued at 130.36 million. PRIMECAP Odyssey Aggressive Growt holds 3.07% of the stake in ACLS, owning 1,008,046 shares worth 128.53 million.
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 $215.00 and a low target of $134.00, the average target price over the next 12 months is $180.80. Based on these targets, ACLS could surge 63.29% to reach the target high and rise by 1.77% to reach the target low. Reaching the average price target will result in a growth of 37.31% from current levels.
Summary of Insider Activity:
Insiders traded ACLS stock several times over the past three months with 1 Buys and 5 Sells. In these transactions, 1,125 shares were bought while 14,192 shares were sold. The number of buy transactions has increased to 19 while that of sell transactions has risen to 96 over the past year. The total number of shares bought during that period was 66,428 while 376,750 shares were sold.
