Owner Scorecard


← All companies ← AXTA Manual AYI → ← AVGO Semiconductors CRDO →

AXTI, AXT Inc

Semiconductors asset-light Cyclical

AXT is a worldwide materials science company that develops and produces high-performance compound and single element semiconductor substrates, also known as wafers.

Our substrate wafers are used when a typical silicon substrate wafer cannot meet the performance requirements of a semiconductor or optoelectronic device.

We have two product lines: specialty material substrates and raw materials integral to these substrates.

Latest annual: FY2025 10-K
AXTI · AXT Inc
I

The business

What it sells, where the money comes from, the kind of company it is.

Revenue · FY2025
$88M
−11.1% YoY · −2% 5-yr CAGR
Vital signs · TTM, with 5-yr average
Revenue $96M 5-yr avg $108M
Gross margin 21% 5-yr avg 25%
Operating margin −13.9% 5-yr avg −10.0%
ROIC −4% 5-yr avg −3%
Owner-earnings margin −29% 5-yr avg −20%
Free cash flow margin −29% 5-yr avg −20%

The business in brief

read the 10-K →

What this business is and what moves its needle, from its own SEC filings.

What it is
Revenue is Substrates (67%) and Raw Materials and Other (33%).
Situation
Cyclical. Margins collapse and recover repeatedly across the record; a single year, good or bad, misstates the through-cycle earning power.
What moves the needle
Gross margin has run about 32% and operating margin about 4.1% through the cycle, a spread the cycle sets more than the company does. The margin is cyclical, swinging between −28% and 13% over the years, so the through-cycle figure carries more than any single year — and the balance sheet at the trough more than the peak. Inventory runs near 57% of sales, so how fast it turns back into cash — and the risk of writing it down when demand softens — sits alongside the margin. Read this kind of business on process leadership and the capex cycle. On its own account, the filing leans hardest on customer concentration, set against the numbers in what the filing emphasizes, below.
Is it a good business?
Return on capital has rarely cleared the cost of capital (median 4%, above 15% in 0 of 10 years). Owner earnings, the cash-based check, have been thin too. The cycle and the balance sheet decide this one; the worst year tells more than the median, and the rest is in the 10-K.

Every line is arithmetic on the company's filings, shown in full in the sections below.

Where the money comes from

read the 10-K →

Substrates is 67% of revenue, with Raw Materials and Other the other meaningful line at 33%.

Revenue by product line, FY2025
  • Substrates67%$59M
  • Raw Materials and Other33%$29M
By geographyChina62%Taiwan15%Europe13%Japan6%Asia Pacific Excluding China, Taiwan and Japan3%North America2%

From the segment footnote of the company's own 10-K. Shares are of total revenue; the profit bar shows each segment's share of segment operating profit, before unallocated corporate costs.

II

The record

Ten years of arithmetic, read across the cycle.

The record, 2016–2025

realized figures from each filing · older years to the left
2016’162017’172018’182019’192020’202021’212022’222023’232024’242025’25TTMTTMMar 2026
Income statement
$81M$99M$102M$83M$95M$137M$141M$76M$99M$88M$96MRevenueRevenue
32%35%36%30%32%35%37%18%24%13%21%Gross marginGross mgn
17%17%19%23%20%18%18%30%24%27%26%SG&A / revenueSG&A/rev
7%5%6%7%7%8%10%16%15%10%9%R&D / revenueR&D/rev
$6M$13M$12M($314K)$4M$13M$13M($22M)($15M)($22M)($13M)Operating incomeOp. inc.
7.9%12.8%11.9%−0.4%4.1%9.4%8.9%−28.5%−14.9%−24.9%−13.9%Operating marginOp. mgn
$6M$10M$10M($3M)$3M$15M$16M($18M)($12M)($21M)($14M)Net incomeNet inc.
12%7%9%39%7%12%Effective tax rateTax rate
Cash flow & returns
$13M$9M$3M$13M$6M($3M)($9M)$3M($12M)($13M)($21M)Operating cash flowOp. cash
$5M$4M$5M$6M$4M$7M$8M$9M$9M$9M$9MDepreciationDeprec.
$907K($7M)($13M)$7M($4M)($29M)($37M)$9M($13M)($4M)($20M)Working capital & otherWC & other
$3M$21M$41M$22M$20M$30M$28M$10M$6M$6M$7MCapexCapex
3.4%21.6%39.6%26.2%20.8%21.6%20.2%13.8%5.8%6.8%7.2%Capex / revenueCapex/rev
$10M($13M)($37M)($9M)($14M)($33M)($37M)($7M)($18M)($19M)($28M)Owner earningsOwner earn.
12.0%−12.9%−36.4%−11.0%−14.7%−24.0%−26.4%−9.3%−18.0%−21.3%−29.2%Owner earnings marginOE mgn
$10M($13M)($37M)($9M)($14M)($33M)($37M)($7M)($18M)($19M)($28M)Free cash flowFCF
12.0%−12.9%−36.4%−11.0%−14.7%−24.0%−26.4%−9.3%−18.0%−21.3%−29.2%Free cash flow marginFCF mgn
6%8%6%-0%2%7%6%-10%-7%-11%-4%ROICROIC
4%6%5%-1%2%7%7%-9%-6%-8%-5%Return on equityROE
4%6%5%−1%2%7%7%−9%−6%−8%−5%Retained to equityRetained/eq
Balance sheet
$48M$64M$39M$36M$73M$42M$44M$40M$23M$120M$107MCash & investmentsCash+inv
$14M$23M$20M$19M$25M$35M$29M$19M$26M$27M$32MReceivablesReceiv.
$40M$46M$59M$49M$52M$66M$90M$87M$85M$82M$90MInventoryInvent.
$7M$11M$13M$10M$13M$17M$10M$10M$12M$13M$16MAccounts payablePayables
$48M$57M$65M$58M$63M$84M$109M$96M$98M$96M$106MOperating working capitalOper. WC
$107M$141M$129M$113M$165M$160M$184M$171M$158M$247M$254MCurrent assetsCur. assets
$16M$23M$29M$28M$39M$48M$75M$82M$74M$91M$98MCurrent liabilitiesCur. liab.
6.7×6.2×4.5×4.1×4.2×3.3×2.4×2.1×2.1×2.7×2.6×Current ratioCurr. ratio
$154M$211M$224M$223M$299M$332M$370M$359M$339M$434M$445MTotal assetsAssets
$6M$5M$5MTotal debtDebt
($17M)($115M)($102M)Net debt / (cash)Net debt
-14.1×-11.0×-17.5×-10.6×Interest coverageInt. cov.
$133M$184M$191M$188M$193M$212M$222M$204M$193M$273M$275MShareholders’ equityEquity
1.3%1.4%1.9%2.8%2.8%3.3%2.8%4.7%3.1%3.7%3.8%Stock comp / revenueSBC/rev
Per share
32.9M39.0M40.3M39.5M41.0M42.7M42.7M42.6M43.2M43.9M53.3MShares out (diluted)Shares
$2.47$2.53$2.54$2.11$2.32$3.22$3.30$1.78$2.30$2.01$1.80Revenue / shareRev/sh
$0.17$0.26$0.24$-0.07$0.08$0.34$0.37$-0.42$-0.27$-0.48$-0.26EPS (diluted)EPS
$0.30$-0.33$-0.93$-0.23$-0.34$-0.77$-0.87$-0.17$-0.41$-0.43$-0.52Owner earnings / shareOE/sh
$0.30$-0.33$-0.93$-0.23$-0.34$-0.77$-0.87$-0.17$-0.41$-0.43$-0.52Free cash flow / shareFCF/sh
$0.08$0.55$1.01$0.55$0.48$0.69$0.67$0.25$0.13$0.14$0.13Cap. spending / shareCapex/sh
$4.04$4.72$4.74$4.76$4.70$4.95$5.19$4.78$4.47$6.22$5.16Book value / shareBVPS
Per-share growththe realized rate an owner's share compounded
9-yr5-yr
Revenue / share−2.3%/yr−2.9%/yr
Capital spending / share+5.7%/yr−22.4%/yr
Book value / share+4.9%/yr+5.8%/yr

The record, charted

FY2016–2025

Each measure over its full record; the current point and the worst year marked.

Share count
44Mpeak FY2025
ROIC
−11%low FY2025
Gross margin
13%low FY2025

Owner earnings vs. net income

Owner earningsNet income

The accountant's number, and the cash an owner can take; the gap is the tell.

($19M)owner earningsvs.($21M)net incomelow FY2018

Where the cash went

ReinvestBuybacksDividendsAcquisitionsRetained

Each year's operating cash, by what management did with it: the mix, and how it drifts.

FY2016FY2023

Net income is the accountant's number; owner earnings is the cash an owner could take out. The walk between them, off the cash-flow statement, and whether the gap is widening or holding.

In fiscal 2025 the business turned a $21M loss into ($19M) of owner earnings: more cash than the profit line showed, after the non-cash charges and the capital it put back in.

FY2025FY2024FY2023FY2022FY2021
Reported net income($21M)($12M)($18M)$16M$15M
Depreciation & amortizationnon-cash charge added back+$9M+$9M+$9M+$8M+$7M
Stock-based compensationreal costnon-cash, but a real cost+$3M+$3M+$4M+$4M+$5M
Working capital & othertiming of cash in and out, other non-cash items−$4M−$13M+$9M−$37M−$29M
Cash from operations($13M)($12M)$3M($9M)($3M)
Capital expenditurecash put back in to keep running and to grow−$6M−$6M−$10M−$28M−$30M
Owner earnings($19M)($18M)($7M)($37M)($33M)
Owner-earnings marginowner earnings ÷ revenue-21%-18%-9%-26%-24%

Owner earnings is the cash an owner could pull out without starving the business: operating cash less the capital it must spend to hold its position . The cash-flow statement also adds stock comp back as non-cash, but it is a real cost paid in shares; counted as the expense it is (less $3M), owner earnings is nearer ($22M).

Maintenance capex is estimated as depreciation where a growing business invests above it; free cash flow is the figure the scorecard's free-cash margin reads.

III

Quality & stewardship

Returns, the balance sheet, capital allocation, and pay.

Owner’s Scorecard

FY2025 10-K · source on SEC EDGAR →

Will it survive?

  • Does not cover its interest
    Operating income ($22M) ÷ interest expense $1M
    What this means

    A full year of operating profit didn't cover the interest bill. This is the zombie zone: the business depends on refinancing, asset sales, or forbearance to service its debt.

  • Net cash
    Cash $120M + ST investments $2M − debt $5M
    What this means

    Cash and short-term investments exceed every dollar of debt by $117M, on net the company owes nothing, and can act from strength when others can't. Net debt is the leverage figure that matters: the cash is already set against the debt. Strategic or illiquid investments aren't counted here.

  • Long (60+ days)
    DSO 111 + DIO 387 − DPO 61 days
    What this means

    Days cash is tied up between paying suppliers and collecting from customers. Lower is better; a long cycle means growth itself eats cash.

Is it a good business?

  • Below average through the cycle
    10-yr median, range -11%–8%; -11% latest = NOPAT ($17M) ÷ invested capital $158M
    Industry peers: median -33%
    What this means

    The rate the business earns on the money tied up in it, Buffett's north star, because over time a stock tracks the ROIC beneath it. Above ~15% sustained hints at a moat; a return below the cost of capital (~8%) erodes value as a business grows rather than building it — the test Buffett weighs most. The headline is the median of the last 10 years (it ran -11% most recently), so one peak or trough year doesn't set the verdict. Asset-light businesses (R&D expensed, little capital) read artificially high, pair this with Owner Earnings.

  • Consumes cash through the cycle
    10-yr median margin, range -36%–12%; latest ($19M) = operating cash ($13M) − maintenance capex $6M
    Industry peers: median -52%
    What this means

    What an owner could take out without starving the business: operating cash less the maintenance capital it must spend to hold its position — Buffett's owner earnings. That's -21% of revenue this year, a -18% median across 10 years. Treating stock comp as the real expense it is (less $3M of SBC) leaves ($22M).

  • Loss, and burning cash
    Net income ($21M) · cash from operations ($13M)
    What this means

    The company reported a net loss, so a conversion ratio isn't meaningful. What matters then is whether operations still threw off cash, here, they did not.

How is the cash used?

  • No surplus to allocate
    What this means

    The business didn't generate positive Owner Earnings this year, so any distributions came from the balance sheet or borrowing, not from operations.

  • Investing or harvesting? 0.66×
    Harvesting
    Capex $6M ÷ depreciation $9M
    What this means

    Descriptive, not a grade. Above ~1× means investing faster than assets wear out (growth, or, sustained for years, today's earnings carrying less depreciation than tomorrow's will). Below means spending less than it's wearing out (efficiency, or a melting asset base). The ratio won't tell you which; the filings will.

Graham’s defensive tests · 2 of 6 met

Graham’s numerical criteria for the defensive investor (The Intelligent Investor, ch. 14), run on the filings. A floor of safety, not a buy signal; many fine modern businesses fail his strictest liquidity rules by design.

  • Adequate size Miss
    Revenue ≥ $2B · $88M
    What this means

    Big enough to weather a storm. Graham's 1972 floor was ~$100M of sales (≈ $700M today); we use a $2B revenue line as a conservative modern stand-in.

  • Strong liquidity Pass
    Current ratio ≥ 2× · 2.72×
    What this means

    Current assets at least twice current liabilities, near-term bills covered without touching the business. Strict by design: many cash-rich modern firms run leaner and miss it, holding their cushion in longer-dated securities.

  • Conservative debt Pass
    Debt ≤ working capital · $5M vs $156M WC
    What this means

    Graham's rule that borrowings not exceed net current assets. Capital-heavy and buyback-heavy firms routinely fail it, read it next to interest coverage, not alone.

  • Earnings stability Miss
    A profit every year (10-yr record) · 4 loss years
    What this means

    Graham wanted earnings in each of the past ten years, the stability a defensive owner leans on.

  • Dividend record Miss
    Uninterrupted dividends · none paid
    What this means

    An unbroken dividend was Graham's mark of durability. He wanted twenty years; the filings show about ten, and a single suspension breaks the streak. Non-payers, many fine modern compounders, fall outside his defensive net by design.

  • Earnings growth Miss
    Earnings +33% over the record · −300%
    What this means

    At least a third more earnings than a decade ago, averaging three years at each end. Net income (not per-share), so stock splits don't distort it, buybacks and dilution show up in the share-count line instead.

  • Moderate price
    P/E ≤ 15 and P/E × P/B ≤ 22.5 · decided by the price
    What this means

    Graham's valuation gate, the wall he kept between a sound business and a sound investment. Three-year average earnings are $-0.26/share (latest year $-0.32), the averaged base the calculator's gate runs on, and book value is $4.18/share. Enter a price in “What the price implies” just below for the P/E, P/B, and whether it clears. But this is the rule Buffett outgrew: there's no hard P/E law, and a wonderful business can deserve a far richer multiple if the thesis holds, treat it as the bargain-hunter's floor, not a verdict on the price.

Durability & moat, 2016–2025

Whether the record’s returns held, and what the capital reinvested earned.

  • Profitable years 6 of 10
    What this means

    Lost money in 4 year(s), look at what happened there before trusting the average.

  • Operating margin 11% → −23% (3-yr avg ends)
    What this means

    Through the cycle the operating margin slipped — about 11% early to −23% lately, median 4% — competition or costs are biting in.

  • Reinvestment, incremental ROIC returns capital
    What this means

    The capital base barely grew: this business returns cash through dividends and buybacks rather than reinvesting. Judge it on the cash returned, not on compounding.

  • Worst year 2023 · −28.5% op. margin
    What this means

    Operations went underwater in 2023, understand why before trusting the good years.

  • Share count +3.3%/yr
    What this means

    The share count is rising, dilution works against you on a per-share basis.

Does AI threaten the moat?

Low contestability

The moat is physical, regulated or balance-sheet-funded, the kind AI cuts costs within but does not contest.

In its own filing A competitive risk, new this year

Its FY2025 10-K names artificial intelligence as a competitive threat, in language that was not in the prior year's filing.

“In addition, the rapid evolution of AI has the potential to disrupt existing business models and markets and could result in a material adverse effect on our business.”

AI is unlikely to contest a moat that is physical, regulated or balance-sheet-funded; here it reads more as a cost tool than a threat.

Read from the filing's own risk factors, paired with the industry's structure under its SIC code; the durability is read above, the price below.

All figures as filed; the source filing is linked above.

Current Position

as of the latest quarter, Mar 31, 2026

Can the business pay what it owes this year, off the freshest balance sheet: the quality of the assets, the debt actually coming due, and what a low ratio means here.

Current assets$254M
  • Cash & short-term investments$107M
  • Receivables$32M
  • Inventory$90M
  • Other current assets$24M
Current liabilities$98M
  • Debt due within a year$5M
  • Accounts payable$16M
  • Other current liabilities$77M
Current ratio2.59×all current assets ÷ what's due · Graham looked for 2×
Quick ratio1.67×stricter: inventory excluded
Cash ratio1.09×strictest: cash alone against what's due
Working capital$156Mthe cushion left after near-term bills
Debt due this year vs. cash$5M due · $107M cash covered by cash on hand, no refinancing forced · both figures from the Mar 31, 2026 balance sheet
Cash runway3.8 yrsthe business is consuming cash; this is how long the cash on hand lasts at that rate
Revenue, latest quarter vs. a year ago+39.1%the freshest read on whether the business is still growing
Current ratio, recent quarters2.2× → 2.6×
Deeper floors
Tangible book value$275Mequity stripped of goodwill & intangibles
Net current asset value$146MGraham's net-net: current assets less all liabilities
Debt incl. operating leases$7M$2M of it operating leases
Deferred revenue$894Kcustomer cash collected before delivery; operating float

From the company's latest filing.

How the cash was used, 2016–2025

Over the record, the business generated $9M of operating cash; how management split it reads as a reinvestor, most operating cash is plowed back into the business.

  • Reinvested$187M · 2007%
  • Source of funding−$177M

    Reinvestment and shareholder returns ran $177M beyond the operating cash the business generated, so the gap was financed off the balance sheet.

  • Net change in share count62.1%

    The diluted count rose from 33M to 53M: issuance (stock pay, deals) outran any buybacks, so owners were diluted on net.

  • Dividend record

    No dividend line was reported in the filing data over the span; the record here neither confirms nor rules out a payout.

  • Return on what it retained−20%

    Of the earnings it kept rather than paid out ($6M over the span), annual owner earnings (first three years vs last three) fell $1M, so each retained $1 gave back about 0.20 of yearly owner earnings. Buffett's test, run on owner earnings instead of market value.

Buybacks are gross of stock issued to staff; the share-count line above is the net of that, the figure that decides whether owners gained. The average price paid blends a year of purchases (and any accelerated repurchase), so it is close, not exact. The record of where the cash went and on what terms.

Management, ownership & pay

read the proxy →

From the proxy: how much of the business the people running it own, and how they are paid, beside what the business earned for its owners in the same years.

Fiscal yearChief executivePay, as filed“Actually paid”Owner earnings
2021Dr. Young$2.8M$1.8M($33M)
2022Dr. Young$1.4M−$977k($37M)
2023Dr. Young$738k−$29k($7M)
2024Dr. Young$1.1M$1.2M($18M)
2025Dr. Young$1.7M$14.0M($19M)

Both pay figures are the company’s own, from the pay-versus-performance table its proxy statement files. “As filed” is the Summary Compensation Table total: salary, bonus, and equity awards at their value on the day of grant. “Actually paid” is the SEC’s prescribed recalculation, which re-marks those equity awards to what they became as they vested; it can swing far above or below the filed figure in either direction, and negative years occur. Owner earnings are the whole business's, from the record above, for the same fiscal years.

  • Insider ownership6%

    The stake all directors and executive officers hold together, per the 2026 proxy: skin in the game, the first thing Munger reads.

  • Stock-based compensation$3M

    The slice of the business handed to employees in shares this year, 4% of revenue. Buffett's oldest accounting fight: this is compensation, compensation is an expense, real whether or not the headline earnings admit it. One trap: the cash-flow statement adds SBC back, so the operating cash, and the owner earnings drawn from it, are flattered by exactly this amount; counted as the cost it is, what an owner keeps is lower.

Inverting the record

Invert: instead of why AXT Inc is a good business, the question is what would make owning it a mistake, and whether those marks are in the record. Disconfirming tests across 2016–2025.

2 of the 5 tests turned up something to look into; the other 3 came back clean.

  • Look hereDid the share count rise anyway?62.1%

    Diluted shares grew 62.1% over 2016–2025. Owners were diluted on net; each share owns less of the business than it did. Read the buyback line beside this one, not on its own.

  • Look hereDid receivables and inventory outpace sales?67% → 127% of sales

    Receivables and inventory grew from $55M to $122M while revenue grew 18%: working capital is climbing faster than sales (67% of revenue then, 127% now). That can mean customers paying slower, stock building up, or revenue pulled forward. The filing's cash-flow and receivables notes say which.

And these came back clean
  • Is it less profitable than it was?
  • Did reported profit become cash?
  • Are "one-time" charges a yearly habit?

Each test is read from the filings and is noisy alone; a flag can mark a cyclical trough or a year of heavy investment as easily as a problem. The filing says which.

Peers, Semiconductors

The same industry, side by side on owner economics. Each figure is a through-cycle median, so a peak or trough year can’t distort it; the group median at the foot is the line to read each against.

CompanyRevenueGross marginOp. marginROICOwner earn. margin
INDIindie Semiconductor Inc.$217M41%-81.8%-26%-64%
NNDMNano Dimension Ltd.$102M43%-155.1%-14%-70%
AXTIAXT Inc$88M32%6.0%4%-16%
AMBQAmbiq Micro Inc.$73M44%-54.5%-141%
AIPArteris Inc.$71M90%-56.0%-3%
NVTSNavitas Semiconductor Corporation$46M33%-196.7%-41%-108%
KOPNKopin Corporation$39M35%-65.8%-70%-40%
LPTHLightPath Technologies Inc.$37M35%-4.8%-5%-0%
Group median38%-60.9%-26%-40%
IV

The price

What a price has to assume.

What the price implies

reverse-DCF

AXT Inc is profitable, but owner earnings are negative this year because capital spending currently outruns operating cash, a build-out, so the owner-earnings reverse-DCF has no positive base to grow. We read the price from both ends instead: type a price to see the steady-state profitability it demands, then set the mature margin you would believe and weigh the two against each other. Nothing leaves your browser unless you enter it in your notebook.

$
The assumptions

Revenue, delivered−5%/yr’20→’25

Enter a price to run it.

Owner earnings it must reach
Margin the price demands
Owner-earnings margin today−29%

Two reads of one future. From your price: the owner earnings the company must reach, valued at a mature multiple and discounted back at your rate, expressed as the margin it implies on revenue grown at your rate. From your belief: the mature margin you would credit, set on the dial above. When the margin the price demands runs above the one you would believe, you are paying for a future taken on faith. For a deep cyclical at a trough, normalized through-cycle earnings are the better lens; this mode is for the genuinely unprofitable, and for the profitable business whose capital spending currently outruns its cash.

Cite: Owner Scorecard, "AXT Inc (AXTI), the owner's record," https://ownerscorecard.com/c/AXTI, data as of 2026-07-09.

Manual order: ← AXTA its page in the Manual AYI →

Industry order: ← AVGO the Semiconductors chapter CRDO →