Applied Optoelectronics’ (AAOI) Buy Rating Reaffirmed at Rosenblatt Securities

Rosenblatt Securities restated their buy rating on shares of Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) in a report released on Thursday,Benzinga reports. Rosenblatt Securities currently has a $50.00 price target on the semiconductor company’s stock.

A number of other research analysts have also weighed in on AAOI. B. Riley Financial reaffirmed a “sell” rating and set a $15.00 target price on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a report on Monday, November 10th. Needham & Company LLC raised their price objective 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. Northland Securities set a $45.00 price objective on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research note on Thursday, December 11th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research note on Wednesday, January 21st. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Applied Optoelectronics currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $35.60.

Applied Optoelectronics Trading Up 8.1%

Shares of AAOI stock opened at $46.98 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -14.59 and a beta of 3.32. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $38.57 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $31.02. Applied Optoelectronics has a 1 year low of $9.71 and a 1 year high of $50.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23, a current ratio of 2.31 and a quick ratio of 1.63.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider David C. Kuo sold 17,467 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.17, for a total value of $876,319.39. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 111,663 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,602,132.71. This represents a 13.53% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CFO Stefan J. Murry sold 11,693 shares of Applied Optoelectronics stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.25, for a total transaction of $587,573.25. Following the sale, the chief financial officer owned 290,050 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,575,012.50. The trade was a 3.88% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold 66,520 shares of company stock valued at $3,080,367 in the last three months. 4.50% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AAOI. Invesco Ltd. raised its position in Applied Optoelectronics by 5,208.9% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,512,309 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $122,439,000 after purchasing an additional 3,446,150 shares in the last quarter. XTX Topco Ltd raised its holdings in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 167.6% during the 4th quarter. XTX Topco Ltd now owns 24,771 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $864,000 after buying an additional 15,513 shares in the last quarter. SummitTX Capital L.P. purchased a new position in shares of Applied Optoelectronics during the 4th quarter valued at about $254,000. Quadrature Capital Ltd bought a new stake in Applied Optoelectronics in the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,453,000. Finally, Millennium Management LLC purchased a new stake in Applied Optoelectronics in the fourth quarter worth approximately $358,000. 61.70% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.