Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) Stock Price Up 16.3% – Here’s Why

Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI)’s stock price was up 16.3% during trading on Monday . The company traded as high as $173.10 and last traded at $173.28. Approximately 3,824,276 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 60% from the average daily volume of 9,489,428 shares. The stock had previously closed at $148.94.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on AAOI shares. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Applied Optoelectronics from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Monday, April 13th. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research note on Wednesday, January 21st. Needham & Company LLC raised their price objective on shares of Applied Optoelectronics from $43.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 27th. Rosenblatt Securities restated a “buy” rating and issued a $50.00 price objective on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research note on Thursday, February 19th. Finally, B. Riley Financial upgraded 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. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $79.80.

Applied Optoelectronics Price Performance

The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $119.57 and its 200 day moving average price is $64.55. The firm has a market cap of $14.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -280.78 and a beta of 3.76. The company has a quick ratio of 3.03, a current ratio of 3.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18.

Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 7th. The semiconductor company reported ($0.07) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.05) by ($0.02). The company had revenue of $151.14 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $156.98 million. Applied Optoelectronics had a negative net margin of 8.55% and a negative return on equity of 4.64%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 51.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted ($0.02) EPS. Applied Optoelectronics has set its Q2 2026 guidance at -0.030-0.030 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. will post 0.66 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other Applied Optoelectronics news, Director William H. Yeh sold 15,000 shares of Applied Optoelectronics stock in a transaction on Monday, March 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $105.76, for a total transaction of $1,586,400.00. Following the sale, the director owned 238,819 shares in the company, valued at $25,257,497.44. The trade was a 5.91% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Stefan J. Murry sold 4,000 shares of Applied Optoelectronics stock in a transaction on Friday, April 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $136.50, for a total transaction of $546,000.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer owned 276,070 shares in the company, valued at $37,683,555. This represents a 1.43% decrease in their position. 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. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 314,333 shares of company stock valued at $29,262,106. 3.80% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Applied Optoelectronics

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. lifted its position in Applied Optoelectronics by 1.4% during the 1st quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 18,072 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $1,529,000 after buying an additional 243 shares in the last quarter. 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 worth $48,000 after buying an additional 300 shares in the last quarter. AlphaQuest LLC lifted its position in 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 in the last quarter. Police & Firemen s Retirement System of New Jersey lifted its position in 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Allworth Financial LP lifted its position in Applied Optoelectronics by 1,923.7% during the 4th quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 769 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 731 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 61.70% of the company’s stock.

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.