Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) Shares Up 8.6% – Here’s Why

Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI) shot up 8.6% on Tuesday . The company traded as high as $37.98 and last traded at $37.8830. 2,053,039 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 52% from the average session volume of 4,319,567 shares. The stock had previously closed at $34.89.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on AAOI shares. B. Riley reissued a “sell” rating and issued a $15.00 price objective on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research report on Monday, November 10th. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $50.00 price target on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a report on Friday, December 19th. Northland Securities set a $45.00 price objective on Applied Optoelectronics in a report on Thursday, December 11th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research note on Wednesday, January 21st. Finally, Needham & Company LLC increased their target price on Applied Optoelectronics from $38.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 11th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $35.60.

Applied Optoelectronics Stock Down 12.5%

The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $33.29 and its 200-day moving average price is $29.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23, a current ratio of 2.31 and a quick ratio of 1.63. The company has a market cap of $2.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -12.29 and a beta of 3.26.

Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The semiconductor company reported ($0.09) earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.10) by $0.01. Applied Optoelectronics had a negative net margin of 36.97% and a negative return on equity of 7.34%. The firm had revenue of $118.63 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $119.77 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned ($0.21) EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 82.1% on a year-over-year basis. Applied Optoelectronics has set its Q4 2025 guidance at -0.130–0.040 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. will post -1.18 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Applied Optoelectronics

In other Applied Optoelectronics news, CFO Stefan J. Murry sold 934 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.00, for a total value of $32,690.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 283,037 shares in the company, valued at $9,906,295. The trade was a 0.33% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider David C. Kuo sold 12,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.15, for a total transaction of $501,875.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 130,948 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,257,562.20. The trade was a 8.71% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold 16,500 shares of company stock valued at $638,126 in the last ninety days. 4.50% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. CloudAlpha Capital Management Limited Hong Kong increased its holdings in Applied Optoelectronics by 410.7% during the 2nd quarter. CloudAlpha Capital Management Limited Hong Kong now owns 1,408,983 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $36,197,000 after purchasing an additional 1,133,115 shares during the last quarter. Hawk Ridge Capital Management LP bought a new stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics in the third quarter worth $21,392,000. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. bought a new stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics in the third quarter worth $19,738,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Applied Optoelectronics by 13.6% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,624,570 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $119,915,000 after acquiring an additional 551,910 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Citigroup Inc. boosted its stake in Applied Optoelectronics by 60.0% during the 3rd quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 1,160,456 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $30,091,000 after acquiring an additional 435,349 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 61.70% of the company’s stock.

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.