Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) Shares Up 5% – Time to Buy?

Shares of Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI) shot up 5% on Thursday . The company traded as high as $98.80 and last traded at $97.2480. 3,250,435 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 58% from the average session volume of 7,792,712 shares. The stock had previously closed at $92.63.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Applied Optoelectronics Price Performance

The firm has a market capitalization of $6.58 billion, a PE ratio of -134.68 and a beta of 3.20. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $61.32 and its 200 day moving average price is $40.66. The company has a current ratio of 2.63, a quick ratio of 1.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18.

Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) last posted its earnings results 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 company had revenue of $134.27 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $131.56 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted ($0.02) earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 33.9% on a year-over-year basis. Applied Optoelectronics has set its Q1 2026 guidance at -0.090-0.000 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. will post -1.18 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Cynthia Delaney sold 21,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $98.02, for a total value of $2,058,420.00. Following the sale, the director owned 116,222 shares in the company, valued at $11,392,080.44. This represents a 15.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Hung-Lun (Fred) Chang sold 36,400 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $100.25, for a total value of $3,649,100.00. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 233,618 shares in the company, valued at approximately $23,420,204.50. This trade represents a 13.48% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 309,833 shares of company stock worth $26,991,062. 4.50% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Applied Optoelectronics

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Allworth Financial LP lifted its stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 1,923.7% in 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 period. Comerica Bank acquired a new position in shares of Applied Optoelectronics in the third quarter worth about $28,000. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. boosted its stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 166.7% during the 4th quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 1,200 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $42,000 after acquiring an additional 750 shares in the last quarter. Pinpoint Asset Management Singapore Pte. Ltd. purchased a new stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics during the 2nd quarter worth about $49,000. Finally, Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics during the 4th quarter valued at about $55,000. 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.