Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) Given New $220.00 Price Target at Needham & Company LLC

Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) had its price target reduced by Needham & Company LLC from $260.00 to $220.00 in a report issued on Wednesday morning,Benzinga reports. Needham & Company LLC currently has a buy rating on the semiconductor company’s stock.

Several other research analysts also recently issued reports on the company. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $220.00 price target on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research note on Monday, June 22nd. Raymond James Financial reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research report on Wednesday, June 10th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Applied Optoelectronics from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Monday, April 13th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a report on Tuesday, July 7th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $141.80.

Applied Optoelectronics Stock Performance

AAOI opened at $110.52 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $8.87 billion, a P/E ratio of -167.45 and a beta of 3.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a current ratio of 3.83 and a quick ratio of 3.03. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $154.12 and its 200 day simple moving average is $112.68. Applied Optoelectronics has a 1-year low of $18.50 and a 1-year high of $233.67.

Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 7th. The semiconductor company reported ($0.07) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.05) by ($0.02). The firm had revenue of $151.14 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $156.98 million. Applied Optoelectronics had a negative net margin of 8.55% and a negative return on equity of 4.64%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 51.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned ($0.02) earnings per share. Applied Optoelectronics has set its Q2 2026 guidance at -0.030-0.030 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Applied Optoelectronics will post 0.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Applied Optoelectronics

In other news, Director Cynthia Delaney sold 56,575 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $189.23, for a total value of $10,705,687.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 59,647 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,287,001.81. The trade was a 48.68% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Hung-Lun (Fred) Chang sold 40,329 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $170.60, for a total value of $6,880,127.40. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 286,124 shares in the company, valued at $48,812,754.40. This represents a 12.35% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold a total of 500,215 shares of company stock valued at $86,658,774 in the last ninety days. 3.80% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. acquired a new position in shares of Applied Optoelectronics in the first quarter valued at approximately $4,125,000. Next Century Growth Investors LLC acquired a new stake in Applied Optoelectronics during the fourth quarter worth approximately $16,220,000. Andar Capital Management HK Ltd purchased a new stake in Applied Optoelectronics in the 1st quarter worth approximately $11,335,000. Penn Capital Management Company LLC grew its stake in Applied Optoelectronics by 4.7% in the 4th quarter. Penn Capital Management Company LLC now owns 446,032 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $15,565,000 after acquiring an additional 20,077 shares during the period. Finally, 1492 Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Applied Optoelectronics in the 4th quarter valued at $7,529,000. 61.70% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.