Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) Stock Price Down 6.1% – Should You Sell?

Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI) traded down 6.1% during trading on Thursday . The stock traded as low as $132.80 and last traded at $130.5620. 1,456,055 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 86% from the average daily volume of 10,578,797 shares. The stock had previously closed at $139.00.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

AAOI has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Raymond James Financial reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research report on Wednesday, June 10th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Applied Optoelectronics from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Monday, April 13th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $220.00 price target on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research note on Monday, June 22nd. Three research 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 stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $113.80.

Applied Optoelectronics Stock Performance

The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $167.83 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $104.98. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.71 billion, a PE ratio of -183.26 and a beta of 3.69. The company has a current ratio of 3.83, a quick ratio of 3.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18.

Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The semiconductor company reported ($0.07) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates 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 firm had revenue of $151.14 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $156.98 million. During the same quarter last year, the business earned ($0.02) earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue 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 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Chih-Hsiang (Thompson) Lin sold 59,000 shares of the company’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 $9,825,270.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 1,302,436 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $216,894,667.08. This represents a 4.33% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, insider Shu-Hua (Joshua) Yeh sold 39,154 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $173.26, for a total transaction of $6,783,822.04. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 462,430 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $80,120,621.80. The trade was a 7.81% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Insiders have sold 500,215 shares of company stock valued at $86,716,414 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 3.80% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Applied Optoelectronics

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Applied Optoelectronics by 7.7% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,982,660 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $173,696,000 after buying an additional 358,090 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 5,208.9% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,512,309 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $122,439,000 after acquiring an additional 3,446,150 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 5,321.6% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 2,229,757 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $77,730,000 after acquiring an additional 2,188,630 shares during the last quarter. Hawk Ridge Capital Management LP grew its position in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 106.2% during the 4th quarter. Hawk Ridge Capital Management LP now owns 1,700,900 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $59,293,000 after acquiring an additional 875,903 shares during the period. Finally, Morgan Stanley grew its position in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 157.1% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 1,699,855 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $59,257,000 after acquiring an additional 1,038,775 shares during the period. 61.70% of the stock is currently owned by 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.