Early this morning, Kaufman Bros. cut its rating for Aixtron SE (AIXG - 12.93) to "hold" from "buy."

Most of the other analysts following the tech company agree with this tepid rating. Zacks tallies one "strong buy" and one "buy," versus five "holds" and one "strong sell."

On the other hand, the average 12-month price target -- calculated by Thomson Reuters -- sits at $18.36, implying a hefty premium of nearly 47% to AIXG's new low of $12.49, tagged just this morning, and leaving the door open for target cuts in the future.

Option players are rather optimistic toward AIXG as well. During the past two weeks, speculators on the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX) have bought to open 4.40 calls for every put. This ratio arrives in the 87th percentile of its annual range, signaling that traders on these exchanges have purchased bullish bets over bearish at a faster pace than usual recently.

What's more, the security's Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR) of 0.57 implies that calls almost double puts among options slated to expire within three months. This ratio comes in at an annual optimistic peak, suggesting that short-term speculators have never been more positively aligned toward AIXG during the past year.