Insider Selling: Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) Insider Sells $6,880,127.40 in Stock

Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI) insider Hung-Lun (Fred) Chang sold 40,329 shares of Applied Optoelectronics stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $170.60, for a total transaction of $6,880,127.40. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 286,124 shares in the company, valued at $48,812,754.40. This trade represents a 12.35% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

Hung-Lun (Fred) Chang also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Friday, June 12th, Hung-Lun (Fred) Chang sold 34,000 shares of Applied Optoelectronics stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $166.53, for a total transaction of $5,662,020.00.
• On Friday, June 5th, Hung-Lun (Fred) Chang sold 4,000 shares of Applied Optoelectronics stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $200.07, for a total transaction of $800,280.00.
• On Tuesday, May 19th, Hung-Lun (Fred) Chang sold 33,630 shares of Applied Optoelectronics stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $173.26, for a total transaction of $5,826,733.80.

Applied Optoelectronics Trading Down 3.3%

NASDAQ:AAOI traded down $5.49 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $161.85. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 16,553,954 shares, compared to its average volume of 10,556,972. The firm has a market capitalization of $12.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -245.23 and a beta of 3.66. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $168.10 and a 200-day simple moving average of $95.69. Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. has a 1 year low of $18.50 and a 1 year 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.

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently weighed in on AAOI. B. Riley Financial upgraded Applied Optoelectronics from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $54.00 target price for the company in a report on Friday, February 27th. Needham & Company LLC lifted their price target on Applied Optoelectronics from $43.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 27th. Northland Securities reiterated a “market perform” rating and issued a $55.00 price objective on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research report on Friday, February 27th. Raymond James Financial restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a report on Wednesday, June 10th. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Applied Optoelectronics from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Monday, April 13th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Applied Optoelectronics has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $79.80.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Applied Optoelectronics

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Allworth Financial LP raised its holdings in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 1,923.7% during the fourth quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 769 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 731 shares in the last quarter. NFSG Corp purchased a new stake in Applied Optoelectronics in the first quarter worth $85,000. Comerica Bank bought a new stake in Applied Optoelectronics in the third quarter valued at $28,000. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. boosted its holdings in Applied Optoelectronics by 166.7% in the fourth quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 1,200 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $42,000 after acquiring an additional 750 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC purchased a new position in Applied Optoelectronics during the 4th quarter valued at $55,000. 61.70% of the stock is 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.