Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) Shares Down 8.4% – Here’s Why

Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI) traded down 8.4% during mid-day trading on Friday . The stock traded as low as $101.52 and last traded at $102.6640. 1,219,122 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 88% from the average session volume of 10,389,458 shares. The stock had previously closed at $112.02.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

Applied Optoelectronics Stock Down 7.7%

The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $152.29 and its 200-day moving average price is $113.19. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $8.29 billion, a P/E ratio of -157.89 and a beta of 3.69.

Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) last announced its 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). The firm had revenue of $151.14 million for 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%.Applied Optoelectronics’s revenue for the quarter was up 51.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned ($0.02) EPS. Applied Optoelectronics has set its Q2 2026 guidance at -0.030-0.030 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. will post 0.6 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Applied Optoelectronics

In other Applied Optoelectronics news, CEO Chih-Hsiang (Thompson) Lin sold 59,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $166.53, for a total value of $9,825,270.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,302,436 shares in the company, valued at approximately $216,894,667.08. The trade was a 4.33% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, 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 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 completion of 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 ownership of the stock. 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 sold 500,215 shares of company stock worth $86,658,774 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 3.80% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Applied Optoelectronics

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

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.