Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) Stock Price Down 8.4% – Time to Sell?

Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI)’s share price traded down 8.4% during trading on Friday . The stock traded as low as $101.52 and last traded at $102.6640. Approximately 1,219,122 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 88% from the average session volume of 10,389,458 shares. The stock had previously closed at $112.02.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Raymond James Financial reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research report on Wednesday, June 10th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Applied Optoelectronics from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Monday, April 13th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a report on Tuesday, July 7th. Needham & Company LLC reduced their price objective on Applied Optoelectronics from $260.00 to $220.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities restated a “buy” rating and issued a $220.00 target price on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research report on Monday, June 22nd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $141.80.

Applied Optoelectronics Stock Performance

The stock has a market cap of $8.04 billion, a P/E ratio of -151.74 and a beta of 3.69. The company has a fifty day moving average of $150.48 and a 200 day moving average of $113.09. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a current ratio of 3.83 and a quick ratio of 3.03.

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

Insider Activity

In other Applied Optoelectronics news, CFO Stefan J. Murry sold 33,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $173.26, for a total value of $5,717,580.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 451,906 shares in the company, valued at approximately $78,297,233.56. The trade was a 6.81% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, insider Hung-Lun (Fred) Chang sold 40,329 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $170.60, for a total transaction of $6,880,127.40. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 286,124 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $48,812,754.40. The trade was 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 sold 500,215 shares of company stock valued at $86,658,774 over the last quarter. Insiders own 3.80% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Tema ETFs LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics during the second quarter worth $62,000. Handelsbanken Fonder AB purchased a new position in Applied Optoelectronics in the 2nd quarter worth about $7,719,000. Fulcrum Equity Management purchased a new position in Applied Optoelectronics in the 2nd quarter worth about $623,000. UNICOM Systems Inc. raised its holdings in Applied Optoelectronics by 122.3% during the 2nd quarter. UNICOM Systems Inc. now owns 152,483 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $22,592,000 after buying an additional 83,892 shares during the period. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its stake in Applied Optoelectronics by 48.0% during the second quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 72,164 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $10,692,000 after buying an additional 23,402 shares in 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.