Citigroup Inc. Boosts Stake in Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. $AAOI

Citigroup Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI) by 60.0% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,160,456 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after acquiring an additional 435,349 shares during the period. Citigroup Inc. owned 1.86% of Applied Optoelectronics worth $30,091,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of AAOI. CloudAlpha Capital Management Limited Hong Kong lifted its position in Applied Optoelectronics by 410.7% during the second quarter. CloudAlpha Capital Management Limited Hong Kong now owns 1,408,983 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $36,197,000 after buying an additional 1,133,115 shares in the last quarter. WT Asset Management Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics in the 3rd quarter worth $5,040,000. Squarepoint Ops LLC purchased a new position in shares of Applied Optoelectronics during the 2nd quarter worth $4,283,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Applied Optoelectronics during the 3rd quarter valued at about $1,279,000. Finally, Zweig DiMenna Associates LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics in the second quarter valued at about $3,468,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 61.70% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Applied Optoelectronics news, insider David C. Kuo sold 17,467 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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. This represents a 13.53% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, 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 value of $587,573.25. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 290,050 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,575,012.50. This represents a 3.88% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 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.

Applied Optoelectronics Trading Up 3.3%

Shares of AAOI stock opened at $58.12 on Thursday. Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $9.71 and a fifty-two week high of $59.25. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $40.61 and a 200 day moving average price of $32.00. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.97 billion, a P/E ratio of -18.05 and a beta of 3.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23, a quick ratio of 1.63 and a current ratio of 2.31.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AAOI has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. 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. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research report on Wednesday, January 21st. Northland Securities set a $45.00 price target on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research report on Thursday, December 11th. 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 reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $50.00 price objective on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research report on Thursday, February 19th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Applied Optoelectronics presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $35.60.

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.