Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) Shares Down 10.2% – Here’s Why

Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI)’s stock price traded down 10.2% during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The company traded as low as $154.70 and last traded at $153.7490. 4,450,631 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 58% from the average daily volume of 10,531,398 shares. The stock had previously closed at $171.23.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AAOI has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Needham & Company LLC increased their target price on Applied Optoelectronics from $43.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 27th. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $220.00 price target on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research note on Monday. B. Riley Financial raised shares of Applied Optoelectronics from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $54.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 27th. Northland Securities restated a “market perform” rating and set a $55.00 price objective on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research note on Friday, February 27th. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut shares of Applied Optoelectronics from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Monday, April 13th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $113.80.

Applied Optoelectronics Price Performance

The firm has a 50-day moving average of $170.33 and a 200-day moving average of $98.62. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $12.25 billion, a P/E ratio of -231.10 and a beta of 3.67.

Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) last posted its 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). The business had revenue of $151.14 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted ($0.02) EPS. Applied Optoelectronics has set its Q2 2026 guidance at -0.030-0.030 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. will post 0.6 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Applied Optoelectronics news, insider Shu-Hua (Joshua) Yeh sold 6,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $171.89, for a total value of $1,031,340.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 394,207 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $67,760,241.23. The trade was a 1.50% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider David C. Kuo sold 29,227 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $166.53, for a total transaction of $4,867,172.31. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 149,078 shares in the company, valued at approximately $24,825,959.34. The trade was a 16.39% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Insiders sold 500,215 shares of company stock worth $86,716,414 in the last three months. 3.80% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Applied Optoelectronics

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AAOI. Cinctive Capital Management LP bought a new stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics during the 3rd quarter valued at $800,000. Diker Management LLC bought a new position in Applied Optoelectronics in the 3rd quarter worth $519,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Applied Optoelectronics by 13.6% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,624,570 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $119,915,000 after purchasing an additional 551,910 shares in the last quarter. 1492 Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in Applied Optoelectronics during the fourth quarter valued at $7,529,000. Finally, Penn Capital Management Company LLC lifted its position in Applied Optoelectronics by 4.7% during the fourth quarter. Penn Capital Management Company LLC now owns 446,032 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $15,565,000 after purchasing an additional 20,077 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 61.70% of the company’s stock.

About Applied Optoelectronics

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.