Renaissance Technologies LLC Makes New $47.82 Million Investment in Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. $AAOI

Renaissance Technologies LLC acquired a new position in shares of Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI) during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund acquired 565,279 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock, valued at approximately $47,817,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. increased its stake in Applied Optoelectronics by 10.4% in 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 purchasing an additional 2,415 shares during the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers acquired a new stake in Applied Optoelectronics in the 2nd quarter worth about $377,000. New York State Common Retirement Fund grew its holdings in Applied Optoelectronics by 36.0% in the 2nd 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. grew its holdings in Applied Optoelectronics by 50.0% in the 2nd 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 acquired a new position in shares of Applied Optoelectronics during the 2nd quarter valued at about $952,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 61.70% of the company’s stock.

Applied Optoelectronics Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:AAOI opened at $97.82 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.85 billion, a PE ratio of -148.21 and a beta of 3.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a current ratio of 3.83 and a quick ratio of 3.03. The business has a 50-day moving average of $148.97 and a two-hundred day moving average of $114.06. Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. has a 12 month low of $18.50 and a 12 month high of $233.67.

Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 firm had revenue of $151.14 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $156.98 million. Applied Optoelectronics had a negative return on equity of 4.64% and a negative net margin of 8.55%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 51.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned ($0.02) earnings per share. Applied Optoelectronics has set its Q2 2026 guidance at -0.030-0.030 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. will post 0.6 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on AAOI shares. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a report on Tuesday, July 7th. Rosenblatt Securities restated a “buy” rating and issued a $220.00 target price on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a report on Monday, June 22nd. Raymond James Financial reaffirmed 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 research note on Monday, April 13th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC decreased their price target on shares of Applied Optoelectronics from $260.00 to $220.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, July 22nd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have given 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.

Insider Transactions at Applied Optoelectronics

In other Applied Optoelectronics news, insider Hung-Lun (Fred) Chang sold 40,329 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $170.60, for a total transaction of $6,880,127.40. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 286,124 shares in the company, valued at $48,812,754.40. The trade was a 12.35% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Chih-Hsiang (Thompson) Lin sold 59,000 shares of the 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 directly owned 1,302,436 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $216,894,667.08. The trade was a 4.33% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Insiders have sold a total of 500,215 shares of company stock valued at $86,658,774 in the last three months. 3.80% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Applied Optoelectronics 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.