Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Hold” from Analysts

Shares of Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI) have been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the seven brokerages that are covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, three have given a hold recommendation and three have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $52.80.

AAOI has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Northland Securities restated a “market perform” rating and set a $55.00 price target on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research note on Friday, February 27th. B. Riley Financial upgraded shares of Applied Optoelectronics from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $54.00 price target for the company in a research note on Friday, February 27th. Needham & Company LLC raised their price target on shares of Applied Optoelectronics from $43.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 27th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Applied Optoelectronics from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Sunday, April 5th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities restated a “buy” rating and set a $50.00 price target on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research note on Thursday, February 19th.

Insider Activity at Applied Optoelectronics

In other news, insider Shu-Hua (Joshua) Yeh sold 50,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $97.10, for a total transaction of $4,855,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 322,051 shares in the company, valued at $31,271,152.10. This trade represents a 13.44% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Stefan J. Murry sold 4,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $112.76, for a total transaction of $451,040.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer owned 280,070 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $31,580,693.20. The trade was a 1.41% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 326,333 shares of company stock worth $29,392,957 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 4.50% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Applied Optoelectronics

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of AAOI. Cinctive Capital Management LP purchased a new position in Applied Optoelectronics in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $800,000. Diker Management LLC purchased a new position in Applied Optoelectronics in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $519,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Applied Optoelectronics by 13.6% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,624,570 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $119,915,000 after buying an additional 551,910 shares in the last quarter. AI Squared Management Ltd purchased a new position in Applied Optoelectronics in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $5,043,000. Finally, WT Asset Management Ltd purchased a new position in Applied Optoelectronics in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $5,040,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 61.70% of the company’s stock.

Applied Optoelectronics Trading Up 13.0%

NASDAQ:AAOI opened at $150.60 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a quick ratio of 1.91 and a current ratio of 2.63. The firm has a market cap of $11.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -231.69 and a beta of 3.23. Applied Optoelectronics has a 52 week low of $9.71 and a 52 week high of $154.75. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $82.51 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $49.17.

Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 26th. The semiconductor company reported ($0.01) EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.12) by $0.11. The firm had revenue of $134.27 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $131.56 million. Applied Optoelectronics had a negative net margin of 8.39% and a negative return on equity of 5.29%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 33.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted ($0.02) EPS. Applied Optoelectronics has set its Q1 2026 guidance at -0.090-0.000 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that Applied Optoelectronics will post -1.18 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.