Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) Trading 6.5% Higher – Here’s Why

Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI)’s stock price was up 6.5% on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $37.40 and last traded at $36.7090. Approximately 1,697,563 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 62% from the average daily volume of 4,486,124 shares. The stock had previously closed at $34.47.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have commented on the stock. Northland Securities set a $45.00 price target on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research note on Thursday, December 11th. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $50.00 price target on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research note on Friday, December 19th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. B. Riley reissued a “sell” rating and set a $15.00 target price on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a report on Monday, November 10th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC increased their price target on Applied Optoelectronics from $38.00 to $43.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 11th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $35.60.

Applied Optoelectronics Stock Up 0.1%

The stock has a fifty day moving average of $30.35 and a 200-day moving average of $28.45. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -11.50 and a beta of 3.26. The company has a current ratio of 2.31, a quick ratio of 1.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23.

Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The semiconductor company reported ($0.09) earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.10) by $0.01. Applied Optoelectronics had a negative return on equity of 7.34% and a negative net margin of 36.97%.The business had revenue of $118.63 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $119.77 million. During the same quarter last year, the company posted ($0.21) EPS. Applied Optoelectronics’s revenue for the quarter was up 82.1% on a year-over-year basis. Applied Optoelectronics has set its Q4 2025 guidance at -0.130–0.040 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. will post -1.18 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Applied Optoelectronics

In related news, insider David C. Kuo sold 12,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.15, for a total value of $501,875.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 130,948 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,257,562.20. This represents a 8.71% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Stefan J. Murry sold 3,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, January 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $33.75, for a total value of $101,250.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 283,971 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,584,021.25. This represents a 1.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 16,434 shares of company stock valued at $635,815. 4.50% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. CloudAlpha Capital Management Limited Hong Kong increased its stake in Applied Optoelectronics by 410.7% in the second quarter. CloudAlpha Capital Management Limited Hong Kong now owns 1,408,983 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $36,197,000 after purchasing an additional 1,133,115 shares in the last quarter. Chung Wu Investment Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics in the 2nd quarter valued at $344,000. Sovereign Financial Group Inc. acquired a new stake in Applied Optoelectronics during the 2nd quarter worth $287,000. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC bought a new position in Applied Optoelectronics during the second quarter worth about $7,201,000. Finally, Squarepoint Ops LLC bought a new position in Applied Optoelectronics in the second quarter valued at $4,283,000. 61.70% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.