Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) Price Target Cut to $220.00 by Analysts at Needham & Company LLC

Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) had its price objective cut by investment analysts at Needham & Company LLC from $260.00 to $220.00 in a note issued to investors on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has a “buy” rating on the semiconductor company’s stock. Needham & Company LLC’s price target suggests a potential upside of 84.47% from the company’s current price.

Several other equities research analysts also recently weighed in on the company. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a report on Tuesday, July 7th. Wall Street Zen cut Applied Optoelectronics from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Monday, April 13th. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “buy” rating and set a $220.00 price objective on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research report on Monday, June 22nd. Finally, Raymond James Financial reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research 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. According to data from MarketBeat, Applied Optoelectronics currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $141.80.

Applied Optoelectronics Trading Up 15.8%

NASDAQ AAOI opened at $119.26 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a current ratio of 3.83 and a quick ratio of 3.03. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.57 billion, a P/E ratio of -180.70 and a beta of 3.69. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $156.37 and its two-hundred day moving average is $112.14. Applied Optoelectronics has a 12 month low of $18.50 and a 12 month high of $233.67.

Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) last released its quarterly 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). The firm had revenue of $151.14 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $156.98 million. Applied Optoelectronics had a negative return on equity of 4.64% and a negative net margin of 8.55%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 51.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned ($0.02) earnings per share. Applied Optoelectronics has set its Q2 2026 guidance at -0.030-0.030 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Applied Optoelectronics will post 0.6 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Hung-Lun (Fred) Chang sold 40,329 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $170.60, for a total transaction of $6,880,127.40. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 286,124 shares in the company, valued at $48,812,754.40. This represents a 12.35% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider David C. Kuo sold 29,227 shares of Applied Optoelectronics stock in a transaction on Friday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $166.53, for a total transaction 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. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Insiders have sold 500,215 shares of company stock worth $86,658,774 over the last 90 days. 3.80% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Applied Optoelectronics

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AAOI. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. raised its stake in Applied Optoelectronics by 10.4% during the 1st quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 25,579 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $393,000 after acquiring an additional 2,415 shares during the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers purchased a new stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics during the second quarter worth approximately $377,000. New York State Common Retirement Fund raised its stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 36.0% during the second quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 17,000 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $437,000 after purchasing an additional 4,500 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 50.0% during the second quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 60,817 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $1,562,000 after purchasing an additional 20,261 shares during the period. Finally, First Trust Advisors LP purchased a new position in Applied Optoelectronics in the 2nd quarter valued at $952,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 61.70% 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.