Man Group plc Invests $2.01 Million in Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. $AAOI

Man Group plc bought a new position in shares of Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI) in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor bought 13,570 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,011,000.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Hung-Lun (Fred) Chang sold 40,329 shares of the business’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 directly owned 286,124 shares in the company, valued at approximately $48,812,754.40. The trade was a 12.35% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 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 transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,302,436 shares in the company, valued at $216,894,667.08. The trade was a 4.33% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Insiders sold a total of 264,382 shares of company stock valued at $44,224,007 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 3.80% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts recently weighed in on AAOI shares. Raymond James Financial restated an “outperform” rating and set a $178.00 price target on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research report on Tuesday, August 11th. Weiss Ratings lowered Applied Optoelectronics from a “sell (d-)” rating to a “sell (e+)” rating in a research note on Monday, August 17th. Wall Street Zen raised Applied Optoelectronics from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, August 8th. Needham & Company LLC decreased their target price on Applied Optoelectronics from $220.00 to $190.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, August 7th. Finally, B. Riley Financial reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research note on Friday, August 7th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $139.40.

Applied Optoelectronics Stock Down 4.0%

Shares of NASDAQ:AAOI opened at $103.39 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.13, a current ratio of 2.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. The business has a fifty day moving average of $119.59 and a two-hundred day moving average of $128.60. The stock has a market cap of $8.74 billion, a P/E ratio of -132.55 and a beta of 3.79. Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. has a 52-week low of $18.50 and a 52-week high of $233.67.

Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 6th. The semiconductor company reported $0.06 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.02 by $0.04. Applied Optoelectronics had a negative net margin of 9.57% and a negative return on equity of 1.98%. The firm had revenue of $191.92 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $190.48 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted ($0.16) EPS. The company’s revenue was up 86.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Applied Optoelectronics has set its Q3 2026 guidance at 0.110-0.260 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. will post 0.55 earnings per share for the current year.

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.