Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) Trading Up 17.8% – Time to Buy?

Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI) shares traded up 17.8% during trading on Thursday . The company traded as high as $89.32 and last traded at $90.1640. 3,189,974 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 69% from the average session volume of 10,363,205 shares. The stock had previously closed at $76.52.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

Applied Optoelectronics Stock Up 4.7%

The company has a market capitalization of $7.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -142.91 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. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $142.06 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $114.97.

Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The semiconductor company reported ($0.07) EPS 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 analyst estimates of $156.98 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted ($0.02) EPS. The company’s revenue was up 51.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Applied Optoelectronics has set its Q2 2026 guidance at -0.030-0.030 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. will post 0.6 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CFO Stefan J. Murry sold 33,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $173.26, for a total transaction of $5,717,580.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 451,906 shares in the company, valued at approximately $78,297,233.56. This represents a 6.81% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, insider Hung-Lun (Fred) Chang sold 40,329 shares of Applied Optoelectronics stock in a transaction 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 completion of the sale, the insider owned 286,124 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $48,812,754.40. This trade represents a 12.35% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 501,500 shares of company stock worth $86,812,999 over the last 90 days. 3.80% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Applied Optoelectronics

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Allworth Financial LP raised its stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 1,923.7% in the 4th quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 769 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 731 shares in the last quarter. Comerica Bank acquired a new position in Applied Optoelectronics in the third quarter worth about $28,000. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. grew its stake 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 worth $42,000 after purchasing an additional 750 shares in the last quarter. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC bought a new stake in Applied Optoelectronics in the fourth quarter valued at about $55,000. Finally, Headlands Technologies LLC bought a new stake in Applied Optoelectronics in the second quarter valued at about $57,000. 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.