Principal Financial Group Inc. Makes New Investment in Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. $AAOI

Principal Financial Group Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI) in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 49,342 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,279,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned about 0.08% of Applied Optoelectronics as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Applied Optoelectronics by 497.5% during the second quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 962 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 801 shares during the last quarter. Pinpoint Asset Management Singapore Pte. Ltd. purchased a new stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $49,000. CWM LLC boosted its position in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 175.5% during the 2nd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 2,218 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $57,000 after acquiring an additional 1,413 shares during the last quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC purchased a new position in shares of Applied Optoelectronics in the second quarter valued at $57,000. Finally, Ameritas Investment Partners Inc. increased its position in Applied Optoelectronics by 28.8% in the second quarter. Ameritas Investment Partners Inc. now owns 5,488 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $141,000 after purchasing an additional 1,226 shares during the last quarter. 61.70% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Applied Optoelectronics Stock Performance

AAOI stock opened at $43.91 on Wednesday. Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. has a twelve month low of $9.71 and a twelve month high of $50.80. The firm has a market cap of $3.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -13.64 and a beta of 3.32. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $38.19 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $30.82. The company has a quick ratio of 1.63, a current ratio of 2.31 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider David C. Kuo sold 17,467 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.17, for a total transaction of $876,319.39. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 111,663 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,602,132.71. This trade represents a 13.53% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Stefan J. Murry sold 11,693 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.25, for a total value of $587,573.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 290,050 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,575,012.50. This trade represents a 3.88% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 66,520 shares of company stock worth $3,080,367 in the last ninety days. 4.50% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have commented on AAOI. Needham & Company LLC increased their price objective on shares of Applied Optoelectronics from $38.00 to $43.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 11th. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $50.00 price target on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a report on Friday, December 19th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research report on Wednesday, January 21st. B. Riley Financial reissued a “sell” rating and set a $15.00 price objective on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research note on Monday, November 10th. Finally, Northland Securities set a $45.00 price objective on Applied Optoelectronics in a research note on Thursday, December 11th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $35.60.

Applied Optoelectronics 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.