Penn Capital Management Company LLC Invests $11.06 Million in Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. $AAOI

Penn Capital Management Company LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI) in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor purchased 425,955 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,057,000. Penn Capital Management Company LLC owned about 0.62% of Applied Optoelectronics as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Hawk Ridge Capital Management LP bought a new position in shares of Applied Optoelectronics in the third quarter valued at $21,392,000. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. bought a new position in Applied Optoelectronics during the third quarter worth about $19,738,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Applied Optoelectronics by 13.6% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,624,570 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $119,915,000 after buying an additional 551,910 shares during the last quarter. Citigroup Inc. increased its position in Applied Optoelectronics by 60.0% during the third quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 1,160,456 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $30,091,000 after buying an additional 435,349 shares during the last quarter. Finally, New York State Common Retirement Fund raised its stake in Applied Optoelectronics by 1,618.6% in the third quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 292,167 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $7,576,000 after buying an additional 275,167 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 61.70% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have recently commented on AAOI. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $50.00 target price on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research note on Thursday, February 19th. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research note on Wednesday, January 21st. Needham & Company LLC raised their price target on Applied Optoelectronics from $43.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 27th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Applied Optoelectronics from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, February 28th. Finally, B. Riley Financial raised shares of Applied Optoelectronics from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $54.00 target price for the company in a report on Friday, February 27th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Applied Optoelectronics has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $52.80.

Applied Optoelectronics Price Performance

NASDAQ:AAOI opened at $86.33 on Wednesday. Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. has a 52 week low of $9.71 and a 52 week high of $128.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a quick ratio of 1.91 and a current ratio of 2.63. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $57.78 and its 200 day simple moving average is $39.41. The firm has a market cap of $6.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -132.82 and a beta of 3.20.

Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 26th. The semiconductor company reported ($0.01) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.12) by $0.11. Applied Optoelectronics had a negative net margin of 8.39% and a negative return on equity of 5.29%. The firm had revenue of $134.27 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $131.56 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted ($0.02) EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 33.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Applied Optoelectronics has set its Q1 2026 guidance at -0.090-0.000 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. will post -1.18 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Applied Optoelectronics

In other Applied Optoelectronics news, Director William H. Yeh sold 15,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $105.76, for a total value of $1,586,400.00. Following the sale, the director owned 238,819 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $25,257,497.44. This trade represents a 5.91% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Min-Chu (Mike) Chen sold 8,835 shares of Applied Optoelectronics stock in a transaction on Monday, March 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $108.72, for a total value of $960,541.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 169,300 shares in the company, valued at approximately $18,406,296. The trade was a 4.96% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 273,433 shares of company stock worth $23,341,962 in the last three months. Company insiders own 4.50% of the company’s stock.

About Applied Optoelectronics

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.