Axcelis Technologies (NASDAQ:ACLS) Reaches New 1-Year High – Here’s What Happened

Axcelis Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:ACLS) reached a new 52-week high on Wednesday . The company traded as high as $170.05 and last traded at $158.0440, with a volume of 198464 shares. The stock had previously closed at $139.70.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have commented on ACLS shares. Weiss Ratings raised Axcelis Technologies from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 22nd. Zacks Research raised Axcelis Technologies from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, April 20th. Bank of America increased their target price on Axcelis Technologies from $90.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 13th. Finally, B. Riley Financial raised Axcelis Technologies from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $150.00 target price for the company in a report on Monday, April 20th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $116.25.

Axcelis Technologies Stock Up 15.7%

The business has a 50 day moving average of $101.98 and a 200-day moving average of $91.57. The stock has a market cap of $4.97 billion, a PE ratio of 42.64, a P/E/G ratio of 16.96 and a beta of 1.93. The company has a current ratio of 4.77, a quick ratio of 3.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04.

Axcelis Technologies (NASDAQ:ACLS) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 17th. The semiconductor company reported $1.49 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.12 by $0.37. Axcelis Technologies had a return on equity of 13.73% and a net margin of 14.33%.The company had revenue of $238.33 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $215.04 million. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.54 EPS. The company’s revenue was down 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. Axcelis Technologies has set its Q1 2026 guidance at 0.710-0.710 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that Axcelis Technologies, Inc. will post 2.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Jorge Titinger sold 1,000 shares of Axcelis Technologies stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.00, for a total value of $80,000.00. Following the sale, the director owned 6,477 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $518,160. The trade was a 13.37% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Russell Low sold 1,244 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $138.86, for a total transaction of $172,741.84. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 131,038 shares in the company, valued at approximately $18,195,936.68. This trade represents a 0.94% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 3,488 shares of company stock valued at $369,752. 0.49% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Axcelis Technologies

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of ACLS. Royal Bank of Canada lifted its holdings in shares of Axcelis Technologies by 3.8% in the 1st quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 117,566 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $5,838,000 after buying an additional 4,324 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Axcelis Technologies by 4.9% in the 1st quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 35,717 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $1,774,000 after buying an additional 1,678 shares during the period. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Axcelis Technologies by 4.6% in the 1st quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 19,396 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $963,000 after buying an additional 849 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Axcelis Technologies by 7.5% in the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 635,393 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $31,560,000 after buying an additional 44,275 shares during the period. Finally, UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Axcelis Technologies by 1.1% in the 1st quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 78,756 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $3,912,000 after buying an additional 836 shares during the period. 89.98% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Axcelis Technologies Company Profile

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.