B. Riley ups AXT target, defends after ‘misleading’ short report

B. Riley analyst Dave Kang raised the firm’s price target on AXT Inc. to $5.50 from $3.80 and keeps a Buy rating on the shares. The analyst says yesterday’s short report was “littered with misleading information.” The firm notes its upgrade to Buy in February was not contingent upon the success of Tongmei’s initial public offering in China. Rather, the upgrade was based on an inflection point for AXT’s fundamentals after suffering through a lengthy inventory correction cycle, the analyst tells investors in a research note. Riley believes the rapid adoption of artificial intelligence is driving exponential growth in high-speed optics and that AXT stands to benefit. The firm is “defending the stock.”