Kennedy Capital Management LLC Purchases New Shares in Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. $AAOI

Kennedy Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 447,109 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,586,000. Kennedy Capital Management LLC owned 0.65% of Applied Optoelectronics at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Cinctive Capital Management LP bought a new stake in Applied Optoelectronics in the 3rd quarter valued at $800,000. Diker Management LLC bought a new stake in Applied Optoelectronics in the 3rd quarter valued at $519,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Applied Optoelectronics by 13.6% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,624,570 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $119,915,000 after purchasing an additional 551,910 shares during the period. 1492 Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in Applied Optoelectronics in the 4th quarter valued at $7,529,000. Finally, Penn Capital Management Company LLC boosted its stake in Applied Optoelectronics by 4.7% in the 4th quarter. Penn Capital Management Company LLC now owns 446,032 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $15,565,000 after purchasing an additional 20,077 shares during the period. 61.70% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Applied Optoelectronics

In related news, insider Shu-Hua (Joshua) Yeh sold 39,154 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $173.26, for a total transaction of $6,783,822.04. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 462,430 shares in the company, valued at $80,120,621.80. This represents a 7.81% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing 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, Director Cynthia Delaney sold 56,575 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $189.23, for a total value of $10,705,687.25. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 59,647 shares in the company, valued at $11,287,001.81. This trade represents a 48.68% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last three months, insiders sold 335,233 shares of company stock worth $54,707,470. Corporate insiders own 3.80% of the company’s stock.

Applied Optoelectronics Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ AAOI opened at $169.05 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $13.56 billion, a PE ratio of -256.14 and a beta of 3.66. 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 business has a fifty day moving average price of $163.82 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $91.99. Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $15.29 and a fifty-two week high of $233.67.

Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 7th. The semiconductor company reported ($0.07) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.05) by ($0.02). The company had revenue of $151.14 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $156.98 million. Applied Optoelectronics had a negative net margin of 8.55% and a negative return on equity of 4.64%. Applied Optoelectronics’s revenue was up 51.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned ($0.02) earnings per share. Applied Optoelectronics has set its Q2 2026 guidance at -0.030-0.030 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. will post 0.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently issued reports on AAOI. Raymond James Financial restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research note on Wednesday. Rosenblatt Securities restated a “buy” rating and issued a $50.00 price target on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research note on Thursday, February 19th. Northland Securities reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and issued a $55.00 price objective on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a report on Friday, February 27th. Needham & Company LLC lifted their price objective on Applied Optoelectronics from $43.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 27th. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut Applied Optoelectronics from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Monday, April 13th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Applied Optoelectronics has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $79.80.

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.