Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) Shares Up 8.3% – Here’s Why

Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI)’s share price rose 8.3% on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $110.88 and last traded at $111.5670. Approximately 1,400,201 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 87% from the average daily volume of 10,435,088 shares. The stock had previously closed at $103.02.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $220.00 target price on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research report on Monday, June 22nd. Raymond James Financial reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research report on Wednesday, June 10th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research note on Tuesday, July 7th. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded Applied Optoelectronics from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Monday, April 13th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $113.80.

Applied Optoelectronics Stock Up 11.9%

The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $157.75 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $111.55. The stock has a market cap of $9.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -175.01 and a beta of 3.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a current ratio of 3.83 and a quick ratio of 3.03.

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

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Chih-Hsiang (Thompson) Lin sold 59,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $166.53, for a total transaction of $9,825,270.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,302,436 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $216,894,667.08. This represents a 4.33% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available 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 stock in a transaction on Friday, June 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $166.53, for a total value of $4,867,172.31. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 149,078 shares in the company, valued at approximately $24,825,959.34. This represents a 16.39% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 500,215 shares of company stock valued at $86,658,774. Corporate insiders own 3.80% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Tema ETFs LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics in the 2nd quarter worth about $62,000. Allworth Financial LP boosted its stake in Applied Optoelectronics by 1,923.7% during the 4th quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 769 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 731 shares during the last quarter. NFSG Corp bought a new stake in Applied Optoelectronics during the 1st quarter worth approximately $85,000. Comerica Bank bought a new stake in Applied Optoelectronics during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $28,000. Finally, Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. raised its stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 166.7% in the fourth quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 1,200 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $42,000 after purchasing an additional 750 shares during the last quarter. 61.70% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.