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

Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI) shares gapped down before the market opened on Monday . The stock had previously closed at $124.82, but opened at $109.13. Applied Optoelectronics shares last traded at $103.9780, with a volume of 4,462,749 shares trading hands.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. B. Riley Financial reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a report on Friday, August 7th. Raymond James Financial reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $178.00 price target on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a report on Tuesday, August 11th. Wall Street Zen raised Applied Optoelectronics from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 8th. Needham & Company LLC reduced their price objective on Applied Optoelectronics from $220.00 to $190.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, August 7th. Finally, Weiss Ratings cut Applied Optoelectronics from a “sell (d-)” rating to a “sell (e+)” rating in a research report on Monday, August 17th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Applied Optoelectronics currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $139.40.

Applied Optoelectronics Stock Down 11.8%

The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $127.73 and a 200 day moving average price of $125.42. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -140.52 and a beta of 3.76. The company has a quick ratio of 2.13, a current ratio of 2.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12.

Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 6th. The semiconductor company reported $0.06 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.02 by $0.04. Applied Optoelectronics had a negative return on equity of 1.98% and a negative net margin of 9.57%.The company had revenue of $191.92 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $190.48 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted ($0.16) earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 86.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Applied Optoelectronics has set its Q3 2026 guidance at 0.110-0.260 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. will post 0.55 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other Applied Optoelectronics news, insider Shu-Hua (Joshua) Yeh sold 6,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $147.73, for a total transaction of $886,380.00. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 377,498 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $55,767,779.54. The trade was a 1.56% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider David C. Kuo sold 29,227 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $166.53, for a total transaction of $4,867,172.31. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 149,078 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $24,825,959.34. This trade represents a 16.39% 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. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 329,204 shares of company stock worth $56,587,341. Company insiders own 3.80% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Applied Optoelectronics

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of AAOI. California State Teachers Retirement System raised its position in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 17,896.9% during the second quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 12,681,311 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $1,878,863,000 after acquiring an additional 12,610,847 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. bought a new stake in Applied Optoelectronics in the second quarter valued at approximately $955,672,000. Invesco Ltd. boosted its holdings in 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 acquiring an additional 3,446,150 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its position in 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 valued at $77,730,000 after purchasing an additional 2,188,630 shares during the period. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased its position in 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 purchasing an additional 1,038,775 shares during the period. 61.70% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.