Penn Capital Management Company LLC Buys Shares of 425,955 Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. $AAOI

Penn Capital Management Company LLC bought a new position in Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI) in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor bought 425,955 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,057,000.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Cinctive Capital Management LP acquired a new position in Applied Optoelectronics during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $800,000. Diker Management LLC acquired a new stake in Applied Optoelectronics in the third quarter valued at approximately $519,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Applied Optoelectronics by 13.6% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,624,570 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $119,915,000 after buying an additional 551,910 shares in the last quarter. AI Squared Management Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics during the third quarter worth $5,043,000. Finally, WT Asset Management Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Applied Optoelectronics during the third quarter worth $5,040,000. 61.70% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Applied Optoelectronics Trading Down 8.2%

Shares of AAOI stock opened at $86.33 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $6.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -132.82 and a beta of 3.20. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $57.78 and a 200-day moving average of $39.41. The company has a current ratio of 2.63, a quick ratio of 1.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. has a 1-year low of $9.71 and a 1-year high of $128.96.

Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 26th. The semiconductor company reported ($0.01) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.12) by $0.11. Applied Optoelectronics had a negative net margin of 8.39% and a negative return on equity of 5.29%. The firm had revenue of $134.27 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $131.56 million. During the same quarter last year, the business earned ($0.02) EPS. The company’s revenue was up 33.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Applied Optoelectronics has set its Q1 2026 guidance at -0.090-0.000 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. will post -1.18 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Shu-Hua (Joshua) Yeh sold 50,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $97.10, for a total value of $4,855,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 322,051 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $31,271,152.10. The trade was a 13.44% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director William H. Yeh sold 15,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $105.76, for a total value of $1,586,400.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 238,819 shares in the company, valued at $25,257,497.44. The trade was a 5.91% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 273,433 shares of company stock valued at $23,341,962 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 4.50% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AAOI has been the topic of several recent research reports. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a report on Wednesday, January 21st. B. Riley Financial raised Applied Optoelectronics from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $54.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 27th. Needham & Company LLC upped their price objective on Applied Optoelectronics from $43.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 27th. Northland Securities reiterated a “market perform” rating and set a $55.00 target price on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research report on Friday, February 27th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Applied Optoelectronics from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, February 28th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Applied Optoelectronics presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $52.80.

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.