Insider Selling: Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) Insider Sells 29,227 Shares of Stock

Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI) insider David Kuo sold 29,227 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $166.53, for a total transaction of $4,867,172.31. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 149,078 shares in the company, valued at $24,825,959.34. This represents a 16.39% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards.

Applied Optoelectronics Stock Down 10.7%

Shares of AAOI traded down $20.49 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $171.06. 13,006,588 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 10,508,214. The company has a market cap of $13.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -259.18 and a beta of 3.67. Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $16.55 and a fifty-two week high of $233.67. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a quick ratio of 3.03 and a current ratio of 3.83. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $165.57 and its 200-day moving average is $93.67.

Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The semiconductor company reported ($0.07) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.05) by ($0.02). The business had revenue of $151.14 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $156.98 million. Applied Optoelectronics had a negative return on equity of 4.64% and a negative net margin of 8.55%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 51.3% compared to the same quarter last year. 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. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. will post 0.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Needham & Company LLC raised their target price on shares of Applied Optoelectronics from $43.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 27th. Northland Securities reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and issued a $55.00 target price on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a report on Friday, February 27th. Raymond James Financial reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a report on Wednesday, June 10th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Applied Optoelectronics from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Monday, April 13th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $50.00 target price on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a report on Thursday, February 19th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $79.80.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Applied Optoelectronics

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake 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 valued at $173,696,000 after purchasing an additional 358,090 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. increased its stake in Applied Optoelectronics by 5,208.9% in 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 increased its stake in Applied Optoelectronics by 5,321.6% in 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 increased its stake in Applied Optoelectronics by 106.2% in 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 increased its stake in Applied Optoelectronics by 157.1% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 1,699,855 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $59,257,000 after purchasing an additional 1,038,775 shares during the last quarter. 61.70% of the stock is currently 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.