Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) Trading Up 8.6% – Here’s What Happened

Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI)’s stock price rose 8.6% during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The company traded as high as $37.98 and last traded at $37.8830. Approximately 2,053,039 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 52% from the average daily volume of 4,319,567 shares. The stock had previously closed at $34.89.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AAOI has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Needham & Company LLC boosted their target price on Applied Optoelectronics from $38.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 11th. Northland Securities set a $45.00 price target on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research note on Thursday, December 11th. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research report on Wednesday, January 21st. Rosenblatt Securities restated a “buy” rating and issued a $50.00 target price on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a report on Friday, December 19th. Finally, B. Riley reaffirmed a “sell” rating and issued a $15.00 target price on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research report on Monday, November 10th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $35.60.

Applied Optoelectronics Stock Up 7.2%

The company has a current ratio of 2.31, a quick ratio of 1.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23. The stock has a market cap of $2.55 billion, a P/E ratio of -11.61 and a beta of 3.26. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $32.07 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $28.88.

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Applied Optoelectronics

In other Applied Optoelectronics news, insider David C. Kuo sold 12,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.15, for a total value of $501,875.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 130,948 shares in the company, valued at $5,257,562.20. This represents a 8.71% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Stefan J. Murry sold 3,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, January 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $33.75, for a total transaction of $101,250.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer owned 283,971 shares in the company, valued at $9,584,021.25. The trade was a 1.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 16,500 shares of company stock worth $638,126 over the last quarter. 4.50% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Applied Optoelectronics

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in AAOI. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 10.4% during the first quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 25,579 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $393,000 after buying an additional 2,415 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its holdings in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 85.9% in the second quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,785 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $46,000 after purchasing an additional 825 shares during the last quarter. Chung Wu Investment Group LLC purchased a new position in Applied Optoelectronics in the 2nd quarter worth about $344,000. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS lifted its holdings in Applied Optoelectronics by 47.9% during the 2nd quarter. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS now owns 10,500 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $270,000 after buying an additional 3,400 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sovereign Financial Group Inc. purchased a new stake in Applied Optoelectronics in the 2nd quarter valued at about $287,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 61.70% of the company’s stock.

Applied Optoelectronics Company Profile

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.