Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) Trading Down 10.2% – What’s Next?

Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI)’s stock price fell 10.2% during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The company traded as low as $154.70 and last traded at $153.7490. Approximately 4,450,631 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 58% from the average daily volume of 10,531,398 shares. The stock had previously closed at $171.23.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $220.00 price objective on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research report on Monday. Northland Securities restated a “market perform” rating and set a $55.00 target price on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a report on Friday, February 27th. Wall Street Zen lowered Applied Optoelectronics from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Monday, April 13th. B. Riley Financial upgraded shares of Applied Optoelectronics from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $54.00 price target on the stock in a report on Friday, February 27th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC boosted their price objective on shares of Applied Optoelectronics from $43.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 27th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Applied Optoelectronics presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $113.80.

Applied Optoelectronics Stock Down 10.8%

The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $170.33 and its 200 day simple moving average is $98.62. The company has a quick ratio of 3.03, a current ratio of 3.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. The firm has a market capitalization of $12.25 billion, a PE ratio of -231.10 and a beta of 3.67.

Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The semiconductor company reported ($0.07) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.05) by ($0.02). Applied Optoelectronics had a negative return on equity of 4.64% and a negative net margin of 8.55%.The firm had revenue of $151.14 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $156.98 million. During the same quarter last year, the company posted ($0.02) EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 51.3% on a year-over-year basis. Applied Optoelectronics has set its Q2 2026 guidance at -0.030-0.030 EPS. Analysts anticipate that Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. will post 0.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Applied Optoelectronics news, CFO Stefan J. Murry sold 33,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, June 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $166.53, for a total value of $5,495,490.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 384,576 shares in the company, valued at approximately $64,043,441.28. This represents a 7.90% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, insider David C. Kuo sold 29,227 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the insider directly owned 149,078 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $24,825,959.34. This represents a 16.39% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Insiders sold 500,215 shares of company stock valued at $86,716,414 over the last 90 days. 3.80% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of AAOI. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Applied Optoelectronics by 7.7% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,982,660 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $173,696,000 after purchasing an additional 358,090 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 5,208.9% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,512,309 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $122,439,000 after purchasing an additional 3,446,150 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its holdings in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 5,321.6% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 2,229,757 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $77,730,000 after purchasing an additional 2,188,630 shares during the last quarter. Hawk Ridge Capital Management LP lifted its holdings in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 106.2% during the fourth quarter. Hawk Ridge Capital Management LP now owns 1,700,900 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $59,293,000 after purchasing an additional 875,903 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted its position in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 157.1% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 1,699,855 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $59,257,000 after purchasing an additional 1,038,775 shares in the last quarter. 61.70% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other 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.