Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) CEO Sells $9,825,270.00 in Stock

Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI) CEO Chih-Hsiang (Thompson) Lin sold 59,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $166.53, for a total transaction of $9,825,270.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,302,436 shares in the company, valued at $216,894,667.08. This represents a 4.33% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards.

Chih-Hsiang (Thompson) Lin also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Tuesday, May 19th, Chih-Hsiang (Thompson) Lin sold 58,000 shares of Applied Optoelectronics stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $173.26, for a total transaction of $10,049,080.00.

Applied Optoelectronics Stock Down 10.7%

Shares of AAOI traded down $20.49 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $171.06. 13,006,588 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 10,508,214. The company has a market cap of $13.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -259.18 and a beta of 3.67. Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $16.55 and a fifty-two week high of $233.67. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a quick ratio of 3.03 and a current ratio of 3.83. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $165.57 and its 200-day moving average is $93.67.

Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The semiconductor company reported ($0.07) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.05) by ($0.02). The business had revenue of $151.14 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $156.98 million. Applied Optoelectronics had a negative return on equity of 4.64% and a negative net margin of 8.55%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 51.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted ($0.02) EPS. Applied Optoelectronics has set its Q2 2026 guidance at -0.030-0.030 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. will post 0.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Applied Optoelectronics

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AAOI. Allworth Financial LP raised its holdings in Applied Optoelectronics by 1,923.7% during the fourth quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 769 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 731 shares in the last quarter. Comerica Bank acquired a new stake in Applied Optoelectronics during the third quarter worth approximately $28,000. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. raised its holdings in Applied Optoelectronics by 166.7% during the fourth quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 1,200 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $42,000 after purchasing an additional 750 shares in the last quarter. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC acquired a new stake in Applied Optoelectronics during the fourth quarter worth approximately $55,000. Finally, Headlands Technologies LLC acquired a new stake in Applied Optoelectronics during the second quarter worth approximately $57,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 61.70% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Applied Optoelectronics from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Monday, April 13th. Needham & Company LLC raised their target price on shares of Applied Optoelectronics from $43.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 27th. Raymond James Financial reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a report on Wednesday, June 10th. B. Riley Financial raised shares of Applied Optoelectronics from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $54.00 target price on the stock in a report on Friday, February 27th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $50.00 target price on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a report on Thursday, February 19th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $79.80.

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.