Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) Shares Gap Down – Here’s What Happened

Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI)’s stock price gapped down before the market opened on Monday . The stock had previously closed at $94.32, but opened at $89.80. Applied Optoelectronics shares last traded at $99.1280, with a volume of 1,515,012 shares trading hands.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have weighed in on AAOI. Needham & Company LLC decreased their price target on Applied Optoelectronics from $260.00 to $220.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 22nd. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Applied Optoelectronics from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Monday, April 13th. Rosenblatt Securities restated a “buy” rating and issued a $220.00 target price on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research note on Monday, June 22nd. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research note on Tuesday, July 7th. Finally, Raymond James Financial reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a report on Wednesday, June 10th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $141.80.

Applied Optoelectronics Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a quick ratio of 3.03 and a current ratio of 3.83. The company has a market capitalization of $8.52 billion, a PE ratio of -160.48 and a beta of 3.76. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $142.06 and a 200 day moving average price of $115.54.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Hung-Lun (Fred) Chang sold 40,329 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $170.60, for a total value of $6,880,127.40. Following the sale, the insider owned 286,124 shares in the company, valued at approximately $48,812,754.40. This represents a 12.35% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Chih-Hsiang (Thompson) Lin sold 59,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $166.53, for a total transaction of $9,825,270.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 1,302,436 shares in the company, valued at approximately $216,894,667.08. This trade represents a 4.33% decrease in their position. 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. In the last three months, insiders have sold 501,500 shares of company stock worth $86,812,999. 3.80% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of AAOI. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. bought a new position in Applied Optoelectronics during the first quarter worth $4,125,000. Next Century Growth Investors LLC bought a new stake in Applied Optoelectronics during the fourth quarter valued at $16,220,000. Andar Capital Management HK Ltd bought a new stake in Applied Optoelectronics during the first quarter valued at $11,335,000. Swiss National Bank raised its holdings in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 9.8% during the first quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 128,300 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $10,853,000 after purchasing an additional 11,500 shares during the period. Finally, Penn Capital Management Company LLC raised its holdings in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 4.7% during the fourth quarter. Penn Capital Management Company LLC now owns 446,032 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $15,565,000 after purchasing an additional 20,077 shares during the period. Institutional investors 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.