Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) Sets New 1-Year High – Still a Buy?

Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI)’s share price hit a new 52-week high on Saturday . The stock traded as high as $54.30 and last traded at $51.68, with a volume of 7972280 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $46.98.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently commented on AAOI. Needham & Company LLC upped their price target on Applied Optoelectronics from $38.00 to $43.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 11th. Northland Securities set a $45.00 target price on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research report on Thursday, December 11th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research report on Wednesday, January 21st. B. Riley Financial reissued a “sell” rating and issued a $15.00 price target on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research note on Monday, November 10th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities restated a “buy” rating and issued a $50.00 price objective on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a report on Thursday. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $35.60.

Applied Optoelectronics Stock Performance

The company has a current ratio of 2.31, a quick ratio of 1.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23. The company has a market capitalization of $3.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -16.05 and a beta of 3.32. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $38.96 and its 200-day simple moving average is $31.35.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Stefan J. Murry sold 11,693 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.25, for a total transaction of $587,573.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 290,050 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,575,012.50. The trade was a 3.88% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider David C. Kuo sold 17,467 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.17, for a total transaction of $876,319.39. Following the sale, the insider owned 111,663 shares in the company, valued at $5,602,132.71. The trade was a 13.53% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 66,520 shares of company stock valued at $3,080,367. 4.50% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Applied Optoelectronics

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. lifted its stake in Applied Optoelectronics by 10.4% during the first quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 25,579 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $393,000 after purchasing an additional 2,415 shares during the last quarter. CWM LLC lifted its position in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 175.5% during the 2nd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 2,218 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $57,000 after buying an additional 1,413 shares during the last quarter. AlphaQuest LLC lifted its position in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 202.7% during the 2nd quarter. AlphaQuest LLC now owns 6,952 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $179,000 after buying an additional 4,655 shares during the last quarter. Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS acquired a new position in shares of Applied Optoelectronics in the 2nd quarter valued at $1,549,000. Finally, Nisa Investment Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 497.5% in the 2nd quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 962 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 801 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 61.70% of the company’s stock.

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.