Rice Hall James & Associates LLC Trims Stake in Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. $AAOI

Rice Hall James & Associates LLC lowered its stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI) by 13.9% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 171,570 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after selling 27,623 shares during the quarter. Rice Hall James & Associates LLC’s holdings in Applied Optoelectronics were worth $5,981,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of AAOI. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. increased its position 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 period. Cetera Investment Advisers purchased a new position in shares of Applied Optoelectronics during the second quarter valued at about $377,000. New York State Common Retirement Fund increased its position in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 36.0% during the second quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 17,000 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $437,000 after buying an additional 4,500 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. increased its position in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 50.0% during the second quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 60,817 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $1,562,000 after buying an additional 20,261 shares during the period. Finally, First Trust Advisors LP purchased a new position in shares of Applied Optoelectronics during the second quarter valued at about $952,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 61.70% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AAOI has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $50.00 price target on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research report on Thursday, February 19th. Northland Securities reiterated a “market perform” rating and set a $55.00 price target on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research report on Friday, February 27th. B. Riley Financial raised shares of Applied Optoelectronics from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $54.00 target price for the company in a research note on Friday, February 27th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Applied Optoelectronics from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Monday, April 13th. Finally, Raymond James Financial reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research note on Wednesday, June 10th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Applied Optoelectronics has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $79.80.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Shu-Hua (Joshua) Yeh sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $205.07, for a total transaction of $2,050,700.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 452,430 shares in the company, valued at $92,779,820.10. This represents a 2.16% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Cynthia Delaney sold 56,575 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $189.23, for a total transaction of $10,705,687.25. Following the sale, the director owned 59,647 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,287,001.81. The trade was a 48.68% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 298,833 shares of company stock valued at $51,058,370. Company insiders own 3.80% of the company’s stock.

Applied Optoelectronics Trading Up 13.3%

NASDAQ:AAOI opened at $191.55 on Tuesday. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $165.57 and its 200-day moving average price is $93.67. Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. has a 52 week low of $15.90 and a 52 week high of $233.67. The company has a quick ratio of 3.03, a current ratio of 3.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. The stock has a market cap of $15.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -290.23 and a beta of 3.67.

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

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.