Renaissance Technologies LLC Invests $47.82 Million in Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. $AAOI

Renaissance Technologies LLC purchased a new position in Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI) during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 565,279 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock, valued at approximately $47,817,000. Renaissance Technologies LLC owned 0.70% of Applied Optoelectronics at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of AAOI. Invesco Ltd. raised its holdings in Applied Optoelectronics by 5,208.9% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,512,309 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $122,439,000 after purchasing an additional 3,446,150 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its holdings 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. Morgan Stanley grew its holdings 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. Hawk Ridge Capital Management LP increased its position in shares of 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 buying an additional 875,903 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Artemis Investment Management LLP purchased a new position in shares of Applied Optoelectronics in the fourth quarter valued at $26,923,000. 61.70% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Applied Optoelectronics news, Director Cynthia Delaney sold 56,575 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $189.23, for a total value of $10,705,687.25. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 59,647 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,287,001.81. This represents a 48.68% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Shu-Hua (Joshua) Yeh sold 39,154 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $173.26, for a total transaction of $6,783,822.04. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 462,430 shares in the company, valued at $80,120,621.80. This represents a 7.81% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Insiders sold 500,215 shares of company stock worth $86,658,774 in the last 90 days. 3.80% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. 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 report on Tuesday, July 7th. Needham & Company LLC dropped their target price on shares of Applied Optoelectronics from $260.00 to $220.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 22nd. Rosenblatt Securities restated a “buy” rating and set a $220.00 target price on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research report on Monday, June 22nd. Finally, Raymond James Financial reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a report on Wednesday, June 10th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Applied Optoelectronics currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $141.80.

Applied Optoelectronics Stock Performance

NASDAQ AAOI opened at $97.82 on Tuesday. Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $18.50 and a fifty-two week high of $233.67. The stock has a market cap of $7.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -148.21 and a beta of 3.69. The business has a fifty day moving average of $148.97 and a 200-day moving average of $114.06. 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 posted 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 revenue was up 51.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned ($0.02) EPS. Applied Optoelectronics has set its Q2 2026 guidance at -0.030-0.030 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. will post 0.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Applied Optoelectronics 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.