Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) Shares Up 5.5% – Time to Buy?

Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI) traded up 5.5% on Tuesday . The company traded as high as $115.08 and last traded at $113.5640. Approximately 1,984,950 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 82% from the average session volume of 10,755,803 shares. The stock had previously closed at $107.63.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

AAOI has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Weiss Ratings cut Applied Optoelectronics from a “sell (d-)” rating to a “sell (e+)” rating in a research note on Monday, August 17th. Needham & Company LLC cut their target price on shares of Applied Optoelectronics from $220.00 to $190.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, August 7th. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $220.00 target price on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research note on Friday, August 7th. Raymond James Financial reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $178.00 price target on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a report on Tuesday, August 11th. Finally, B. Riley Financial reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research report on Friday, August 7th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Applied Optoelectronics has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $139.40.

Applied Optoelectronics Price Performance

The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $126.05 and a 200 day simple moving average of $125.85. The firm has a market cap of $9.57 billion, a P/E ratio of -144.65 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 issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 6th. The semiconductor company reported $0.06 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.02 by $0.04. Applied Optoelectronics had a negative return on equity of 1.98% and a negative net margin of 9.57%.The firm had revenue of $191.92 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $190.48 million. During the same period last year, the company earned ($0.16) EPS. The business’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. On average, analysts anticipate that Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. will post 0.55 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Applied Optoelectronics news, insider Shu-Hua (Joshua) Yeh sold 6,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 18th. The shares were 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 in the company, valued at approximately $55,767,779.54. This represents a 1.56% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Hung-Lun (Fred) Chang sold 40,329 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 286,124 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $48,812,754.40. This represents a 12.35% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold a total of 272,629 shares of company stock valued at $45,881,654 over the last quarter. 3.80% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Applied Optoelectronics

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. EFG International AG bought a new stake in Applied Optoelectronics during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $44,000. Persistent Asset Partners Ltd bought a new position in shares of Applied Optoelectronics in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $47,000. Fiduciary Financial Advisors purchased a new position in shares of Applied Optoelectronics in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $48,000. Tema ETFs LLC purchased a new position in shares of Applied Optoelectronics in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $62,000. Finally, Allworth Financial LP bought a new stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics during the second quarter valued at approximately $88,000. 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.