Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) Trading Up 6% – Here’s Why

Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI)’s stock price was up 6% during trading on Friday . The company traded as high as $149.38 and last traded at $145.9270. Approximately 2,125,263 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 77% from the average daily volume of 9,222,730 shares. The stock had previously closed at $137.73.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on AAOI. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $50.00 price target on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research report on Thursday, February 19th. B. Riley Financial raised Applied Optoelectronics from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $54.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 27th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research report on Wednesday, January 21st. Needham & Company LLC upped their price target on Applied Optoelectronics from $43.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 27th. Finally, Northland Securities reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and set a $55.00 price target on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research report on Friday, February 27th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $52.80.

Applied Optoelectronics Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a current ratio of 2.63 and a quick ratio of 1.91. The company has a market capitalization of $12.80 billion, a PE ratio of -249.49 and a beta of 3.23. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $104.04 and its 200 day simple moving average is $58.01.

Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 26th. The semiconductor company reported ($0.01) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.12) by $0.11. Applied Optoelectronics had a negative net margin of 8.39% and a negative return on equity of 5.29%. The business had revenue of $134.27 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $131.56 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted ($0.02) EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 33.9% on a year-over-year basis. Applied Optoelectronics has set its Q1 2026 guidance at -0.090-0.000 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. will post 0.66 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Applied Optoelectronics news, insider Shu-Hua (Joshua) Yeh sold 50,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $97.10, for a total value of $4,855,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 322,051 shares in the company, valued at approximately $31,271,152.10. This represents a 13.44% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Min-Chu (Mike) Chen sold 8,835 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $108.72, for a total transaction of $960,541.20. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 169,300 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $18,406,296. This trade represents a 4.96% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 326,333 shares of company stock worth $29,802,706 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 4.50% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Applied Optoelectronics

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Allworth Financial LP boosted its position in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 1,923.7% during the 4th quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 769 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 731 shares during the period. Comerica Bank purchased a new position in Applied Optoelectronics in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. boosted its position in Applied Optoelectronics by 166.7% in the 4th quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 1,200 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $42,000 after buying an additional 750 shares during the period. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC purchased a new position in Applied Optoelectronics in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $55,000. Finally, Headlands Technologies LLC purchased a new position in Applied Optoelectronics in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $57,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 61.70% of the company’s stock.

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.