Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) Shares Gap Up – Time to Buy?

Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI)’s stock price gapped up before the market opened on Friday . The stock had previously closed at $97.42, but opened at $101.20. Applied Optoelectronics shares last traded at $94.9490, with a volume of 2,875,066 shares traded.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently weighed in on AAOI. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research note on Wednesday, January 21st. Northland Securities reissued a “market perform” rating and set a $55.00 price objective on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a report on Friday, February 27th. B. Riley Financial raised shares of Applied Optoelectronics from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $54.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 27th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Applied Optoelectronics from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, February 28th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $50.00 price objective on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research report on Thursday, February 19th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Applied Optoelectronics has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $52.80.

Applied Optoelectronics Trading Down 0.5%

The company has a current ratio of 2.63, a quick ratio of 1.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. The stock has a market cap of $7.29 billion, a P/E ratio of -148.80 and a beta of 3.20. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $66.96 and its 200 day simple moving average is $42.93.

Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 26th. The semiconductor company reported ($0.01) earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 company had revenue of $134.27 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $131.56 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted ($0.02) earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 33.9% on a year-over-year basis. Applied Optoelectronics has set its Q1 2026 guidance at -0.090-0.000 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. will post -1.18 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other Applied Optoelectronics news, insider Hung-Lun (Fred) Chang sold 36,400 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, March 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $100.25, for a total value of $3,649,100.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 233,618 shares in the company, valued at approximately $23,420,204.50. This trade represents a 13.48% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider David C. Kuo sold 29,000 shares of Applied Optoelectronics stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $100.13, for a total value of $2,903,770.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 82,663 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,277,046.19. This trade represents a 25.97% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 326,333 shares of company stock worth $29,392,957. 4.50% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Applied Optoelectronics

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AAOI. Comerica Bank lifted its position in Applied Optoelectronics by 27.6% during the 4th quarter. Comerica Bank now owns 1,386 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $48,000 after purchasing an additional 300 shares during the period. AlphaQuest LLC grew its position in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 7.9% during the 3rd quarter. AlphaQuest LLC now owns 7,503 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $195,000 after buying an additional 551 shares during the period. Police & Firemen s Retirement System of New Jersey grew its position in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 3.6% during the 4th quarter. Police & Firemen s Retirement System of New Jersey now owns 16,073 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $560,000 after buying an additional 556 shares during the period. Allworth Financial LP raised its stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 1,923.7% during the fourth quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 769 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 731 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. lifted its holdings in Applied Optoelectronics by 166.7% in the fourth quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 1,200 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $42,000 after buying an additional 750 shares during the period. 61.70% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.