Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) Sets New 1-Year High – Should You Buy?

Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI)’s stock price hit a new 52-week high on Saturday . The company traded as high as $54.30 and last traded at $51.68, with a volume of 7972280 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $46.98.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

Applied Optoelectronics Trading Up 10.0%

The firm has a market capitalization of $3.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -16.05 and a beta of 3.32. The business’s fifty day moving average is $38.96 and its 200 day moving average is $31.22. 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 completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 111,663 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,602,132.71. This trade represents a 13.53% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Stefan J. Murry sold 11,693 shares of Applied Optoelectronics stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.25, for a total transaction of $587,573.25. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 290,050 shares in the company, valued at $14,575,012.50. This trade represents a 3.88% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 66,520 shares of company stock worth $3,080,367 in the last three months. Company insiders own 4.50% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. CloudAlpha Capital Management Limited Hong Kong grew its holdings in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 410.7% in the 2nd quarter. CloudAlpha Capital Management Limited Hong Kong now owns 1,408,983 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $36,197,000 after acquiring an additional 1,133,115 shares in the last quarter. WT Asset Management Ltd bought a new stake in Applied Optoelectronics during the third quarter worth about $5,040,000. Squarepoint Ops LLC acquired a new position in Applied Optoelectronics during the second quarter valued at approximately $4,283,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. bought a new position in Applied Optoelectronics in the third quarter valued at approximately $1,279,000. Finally, Zweig DiMenna Associates LLC acquired a new position in shares of Applied Optoelectronics during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $3,468,000. Institutional investors 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.