Wealthfront Advisers LLC Makes New $1 Million Investment in Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. $AAOI

Wealthfront Advisers LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI) in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor purchased 6,768 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,003,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Allworth Financial LP increased its stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 1,923.7% in the fourth quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 769 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 731 shares during the period. Comerica Bank acquired a new position in shares of Applied Optoelectronics during the 3rd quarter worth about $28,000. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. boosted its stake in Applied Optoelectronics by 166.7% during the 4th quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 1,200 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $42,000 after purchasing an additional 750 shares during the period. Persistent Asset Partners Ltd bought a new stake in Applied Optoelectronics during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $47,000. Finally, Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC acquired a new stake in Applied Optoelectronics in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $55,000. 61.70% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at Applied Optoelectronics

In related news, insider David C. Kuo sold 29,227 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, June 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $166.53, for a total value of $4,867,172.31. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 149,078 shares in the company, valued at approximately $24,825,959.34. This represents a 16.39% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, insider Shu-Hua (Joshua) Yeh sold 6,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $147.73, for a total value of $886,380.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 377,498 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $55,767,779.54. This trade represents a 1.56% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold 329,204 shares of company stock worth $56,587,341 in the last three months. Company insiders own 3.80% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AAOI has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Weiss Ratings downgraded Applied Optoelectronics from a “sell (d-)” rating to a “sell (e+)” rating in a research report on Monday. B. Riley Financial reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research report on Friday, August 7th. Raymond James Financial reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $178.00 price objective on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research report on Tuesday, August 11th. Needham & Company LLC lowered their price objective on shares of Applied Optoelectronics from $220.00 to $190.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, August 7th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised shares of Applied Optoelectronics from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 8th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Applied Optoelectronics currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $139.40.

Applied Optoelectronics Stock Down 3.3%

NASDAQ AAOI opened at $124.82 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 2.13 and a current ratio of 2.78. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $127.73 and a 200 day simple moving average of $124.85. Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. has a twelve month low of $18.50 and a twelve month high of $233.67. The stock has a market cap of $10.56 billion, a PE ratio of -160.03 and a beta of 3.76.

Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 6th. The semiconductor company reported $0.06 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.02 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $191.92 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $190.48 million. Applied Optoelectronics had a negative return on equity of 1.98% and a negative net margin of 9.57%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 86.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted ($0.16) earnings per share. Applied Optoelectronics has set its Q3 2026 guidance at 0.110-0.260 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. will post 0.55 EPS for the current year.

Applied Optoelectronics 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.