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

Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI)’s share price gapped up prior to trading on Tuesday . The stock had previously closed at $111.88, but opened at $119.42. Applied Optoelectronics shares last traded at $118.8520, with a volume of 2,085,676 shares traded.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on AAOI shares. Raymond James Financial restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research report on Wednesday, June 10th. Wall Street Zen cut Applied Optoelectronics from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Monday, April 13th. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $220.00 price target on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research report on Monday, June 22nd. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research report on Tuesday, July 7th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $113.80.

Applied Optoelectronics Stock Performance

The company has a current ratio of 3.83, a quick ratio of 3.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $163.96 and its 200 day moving average is $109.09. The company has a market cap of $9.88 billion, a PE ratio of -186.45 and a beta of 3.69.

Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 7th. The semiconductor company reported ($0.07) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.05) by ($0.02). The company had revenue of $151.14 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $156.98 million. Applied Optoelectronics had a negative net margin of 8.55% and a negative return on equity of 4.64%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 51.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned ($0.02) earnings per share. Applied Optoelectronics has set its Q2 2026 guidance at -0.030-0.030 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. will post 0.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Applied Optoelectronics

In related news, CFO Stefan J. Murry sold 33,000 shares of Applied Optoelectronics stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 451,906 shares in the company, valued at approximately $78,297,233.56. The trade was a 6.81% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, CEO Chih-Hsiang (Thompson) Lin sold 59,000 shares of Applied Optoelectronics stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $166.53, for a total value of $9,825,270.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 1,302,436 shares in the company, valued at approximately $216,894,667.08. The trade was a 4.33% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Insiders sold a total of 496,215 shares of company stock worth $86,170,414 in the last three months. 3.80% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Applied Optoelectronics

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in AAOI. Cinctive Capital Management LP acquired a new stake in Applied Optoelectronics during the 3rd quarter worth $800,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. acquired a new stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics in the first quarter valued at about $4,125,000. Next Century Growth Investors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics in the fourth quarter valued at about $16,220,000. Penn Capital Management Company LLC lifted its stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 4.7% in the fourth quarter. Penn Capital Management Company LLC now owns 446,032 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $15,565,000 after buying an additional 20,077 shares in the last quarter. Finally, 1492 Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Applied Optoelectronics in the fourth quarter worth about $7,529,000. 61.70% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.