Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) Shares Down 5.9% – Time to Sell?

Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI)’s share price traded down 5.9% during trading on Friday . The stock traded as low as $38.55 and last traded at $38.60. 1,254,715 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 74% from the average session volume of 4,735,812 shares. The stock had previously closed at $41.00.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Northland Securities set a $45.00 target price on Applied Optoelectronics in a research note on Thursday, December 11th. B. Riley restated a “sell” rating and set a $15.00 target price on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research report on Monday, November 10th. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $50.00 price target on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research note on Friday, December 19th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC increased their price target on shares of Applied Optoelectronics from $38.00 to $43.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 11th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $35.60.

Applied Optoelectronics Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23, a current ratio of 2.31 and a quick ratio of 1.63. The company has a market cap of $2.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -11.90 and a beta of 3.25. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $29.39 and a 200 day moving average price of $26.75.

Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The semiconductor company reported ($0.09) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.10) by $0.01. Applied Optoelectronics had a negative return on equity of 7.34% and a negative net margin of 36.97%.The business had revenue of $118.63 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $119.77 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned ($0.21) EPS. Applied Optoelectronics’s revenue for the quarter was up 82.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Applied Optoelectronics has set its Q4 2025 guidance at -0.130–0.040 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. will post -1.18 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Applied Optoelectronics

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AAOI. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 13.6% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,624,570 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $119,915,000 after purchasing an additional 551,910 shares in the last quarter. CloudAlpha Capital Management Limited Hong Kong grew its holdings in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 410.7% during the second quarter. CloudAlpha Capital Management Limited Hong Kong now owns 1,408,983 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $36,197,000 after buying an additional 1,133,115 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in Applied Optoelectronics by 18.8% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,285,693 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $33,034,000 after buying an additional 203,830 shares during the last quarter. Citigroup Inc. lifted its stake in Applied Optoelectronics by 60.0% in the 3rd quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 1,160,456 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $30,091,000 after acquiring an additional 435,349 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Hawk Ridge Capital Management LP acquired a new position in Applied Optoelectronics during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $21,392,000. 61.70% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Applied Optoelectronics

Applied Optoelectronics, Inc develops and manufactures high-speed fiber-optic networking products designed to support the growing bandwidth demands of data centers, telecommunications carriers and internet content providers. The company’s core offerings include pluggable optical transceiver modules, transponders and optical components that enable data transmission at rates ranging from 1G to 400G. These products are used to facilitate long-haul, metro and intra-data center connectivity, addressing the need for scalable, low-latency and energy-efficient solutions in modern network infrastructures.

The company’s product portfolio spans small-form factor pluggable modules such as SFP+, QSFP+ and QSFP28 units, as well as more advanced form factors like CFP2 and OSFP for ultra-high-speed applications.