Castleark Management LLC Makes New Investment in Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. $AAOI

Castleark Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI) during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 25,700 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,174,000.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Invesco Ltd. increased its stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 5,208.9% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,512,309 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $122,439,000 after purchasing an additional 3,446,150 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its position in Applied Optoelectronics by 5,321.6% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 2,229,757 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $77,730,000 after purchasing an additional 2,188,630 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley lifted its position in Applied Optoelectronics by 157.1% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 1,699,855 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $59,257,000 after purchasing an additional 1,038,775 shares in the last quarter. Hawk Ridge Capital Management LP grew its holdings in Applied Optoelectronics by 106.2% during the fourth quarter. Hawk Ridge Capital Management LP now owns 1,700,900 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $59,293,000 after purchasing an additional 875,903 shares during the period. Finally, Artemis Investment Management LLP bought a new stake in Applied Optoelectronics during the fourth quarter valued at about $26,923,000. Institutional investors own 61.70% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Applied Optoelectronics news, CFO Stefan J. Murry sold 33,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $173.26, for a total value of $5,717,580.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 451,906 shares in the company, valued at $78,297,233.56. This represents a 6.81% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 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 stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, the insider directly owned 286,124 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $48,812,754.40. This trade 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 sold 500,215 shares of company stock worth $86,658,774 in the last quarter. 3.80% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Applied Optoelectronics Price Performance

NASDAQ:AAOI opened at $97.82 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 3.03, a current ratio of 3.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $148.97 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $114.06. The stock has a market cap of $7.85 billion, a PE ratio of -148.21 and a beta of 3.69. Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. has a 52 week low of $18.50 and a 52 week high of $233.67.

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