Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) Trading Down 6.9% – Time to Sell?

Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI) shares traded down 6.9% during trading on Wednesday . The stock traded as low as $37.10 and last traded at $36.5670. 1,467,132 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 68% from the average session volume of 4,531,667 shares. The stock had previously closed at $39.26.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have weighed in on AAOI shares. B. Riley restated a “sell” rating and issued a $15.00 price objective on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a report on Monday, November 10th. Northland Securities set a $45.00 target price on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research report on Thursday, December 11th. Needham & Company LLC raised their price target on shares of Applied Optoelectronics from $38.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 11th. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $50.00 price objective on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a report on Friday, December 19th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $35.60.

Applied Optoelectronics Price Performance

The firm has a market cap of $2.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -11.09 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. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $31.81 and its 200-day moving average price is $28.81.

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

Insider Activity

In other news, insider David C. Kuo sold 12,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.15, for a total value of $501,875.00. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 130,948 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,257,562.20. The trade was a 8.71% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Stefan J. Murry sold 934 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.00, for a total value of $32,690.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 283,037 shares in the company, valued at $9,906,295. This trade represents a 0.33% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 16,500 shares of company stock worth $638,126. 4.50% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in AAOI. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 497.5% in the second quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 962 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 801 shares in the last quarter. Comerica Bank acquired a new stake in Applied Optoelectronics during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $28,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its position in Applied Optoelectronics by 85.9% in the 2nd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,785 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $46,000 after buying an additional 825 shares during the period. Pinpoint Asset Management Singapore Pte. Ltd. acquired a new position in shares of Applied Optoelectronics in the second quarter worth $49,000. Finally, CWM LLC increased its position in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 175.5% during the second quarter. CWM LLC now owns 2,218 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $57,000 after acquiring an additional 1,413 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 61.70% of the company’s stock.

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.