Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) Trading Up 8.3% – What’s Next?

Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI) shares shot up 8.3% on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $110.88 and last traded at $111.5670. Approximately 1,400,201 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 87% from the average session volume of 10,435,088 shares. The stock had previously closed at $103.02.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently commented on AAOI. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Applied Optoelectronics from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Monday, April 13th. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $220.00 price objective on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research note on Monday, June 22nd. Raymond James Financial reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a report on Wednesday, June 10th. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research report on Tuesday, July 7th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC cut their price target on Applied Optoelectronics from $260.00 to $220.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $141.80.

Applied Optoelectronics Price Performance

The business’s 50-day moving average price is $154.12 and its 200 day moving average price is $112.68. The company has a market capitalization of $8.87 billion, a P/E ratio of -167.45 and a beta of 3.69. The company has a quick ratio of 3.03, a current ratio of 3.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18.

Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The semiconductor company reported ($0.07) earnings per share 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $156.98 million. During the same period last year, the company posted ($0.02) EPS. The business’s 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. Analysts anticipate that Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. will post 0.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Applied Optoelectronics

In related news, CEO Chih-Hsiang (Thompson) Lin sold 59,000 shares of Applied Optoelectronics stock in a transaction on 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 1,302,436 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $216,894,667.08. This trade represents a 4.33% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, CFO Stefan J. Murry sold 33,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $173.26, for a total value of $5,717,580.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 451,906 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $78,297,233.56. The trade was a 6.81% decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 500,215 shares of company stock valued at $86,658,774. Corporate insiders own 3.80% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Applied Optoelectronics

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Tema ETFs LLC bought a new position in shares of Applied Optoelectronics in the second quarter worth approximately $62,000. Allworth Financial LP lifted its position in 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 purchasing an additional 731 shares during the last quarter. NFSG Corp purchased a new position in Applied Optoelectronics in the 1st quarter worth approximately $85,000. Comerica Bank purchased a new position in Applied Optoelectronics in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $28,000. Finally, Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. grew its stake in Applied Optoelectronics by 166.7% in the 4th quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 1,200 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $42,000 after buying an additional 750 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 61.70% of the company’s stock.

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.