Rakuten Securities Inc. Acquires New Holdings in Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. $AAOI

Rakuten Securities Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund acquired 17,986 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,665,000. Applied Optoelectronics accounts for about 0.6% of Rakuten Securities Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 27th largest holding.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of AAOI. California State Teachers Retirement System increased its position in Applied Optoelectronics by 23.2% in the first quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 70,464 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $5,961,000 after buying an additional 13,265 shares in the last quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB bought a new position in shares of Applied Optoelectronics in the second quarter worth about $7,719,000. Andar Capital Management HK Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Applied Optoelectronics during the 1st quarter valued at about $11,335,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. purchased a new position in shares of Applied Optoelectronics during the 1st quarter valued at about $4,125,000. Finally, Next Century Growth Investors LLC bought a new position in shares of Applied Optoelectronics during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $16,220,000. 61.70% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Applied Optoelectronics

In other Applied Optoelectronics news, insider Hung-Lun (Fred) Chang sold 40,329 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $170.60, for a total transaction of $6,880,127.40. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 286,124 shares in the company, valued at $48,812,754.40. This represents a 12.35% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider David C. Kuo sold 29,227 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $166.53, for a total value of $4,867,172.31. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 149,078 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $24,825,959.34. The trade was a 16.39% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Insiders sold a total of 329,204 shares of company stock valued at $56,587,341 over the last ninety days. 3.80% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Applied Optoelectronics Trading Down 3.3%

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

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the stock. Raymond James Financial restated an “outperform” rating and set a $178.00 target price on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research note on Tuesday, August 11th. B. Riley Financial reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a report on Friday, August 7th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Applied Optoelectronics from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 8th. Weiss Ratings cut Applied Optoelectronics from a “sell (d-)” rating to a “sell (e+)” rating in a report on Monday. Finally, Needham & Company LLC lowered their price objective on Applied Optoelectronics from $220.00 to $190.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, August 7th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Applied Optoelectronics has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $139.40.

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.