Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) Trading Up 9% – What’s Next?

Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI)’s share price shot up 9% during trading on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $125.73 and last traded at $124.7580. Approximately 1,930,620 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 82% from the average daily volume of 10,557,278 shares. The stock had previously closed at $114.44.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AAOI has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Raymond James Financial reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research note on Wednesday, June 10th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Applied Optoelectronics from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Monday, April 13th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “buy” rating and set a $220.00 target price on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a report on Monday, June 22nd. Three research 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 data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $113.80.

Applied Optoelectronics Stock Down 1.9%

The firm has a market capitalization of $9.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -181.70 and a beta of 3.69. 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 stock has a fifty day moving average of $165.01 and a two-hundred day moving average of $108.11.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Hung-Lun (Fred) Chang sold 40,329 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 17th. The stock was 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 $48,812,754.40. This represents a 12.35% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Cynthia Delaney sold 56,575 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $189.23, for a total transaction of $10,705,687.25. Following the transaction, the director owned 59,647 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,287,001.81. The trade was a 48.68% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold 496,215 shares of company stock valued at $86,170,414 over the last 90 days. 3.80% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Applied Optoelectronics

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Invesco Ltd. lifted its holdings in Applied Optoelectronics by 5,208.9% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,512,309 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $122,439,000 after buying an additional 3,446,150 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its position in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 5,321.6% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 2,229,757 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $77,730,000 after acquiring an additional 2,188,630 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley raised its position in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 157.1% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 1,699,855 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $59,257,000 after acquiring an additional 1,038,775 shares in the last quarter. Hawk Ridge Capital Management LP lifted its stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 106.2% in the 4th quarter. Hawk Ridge Capital Management LP now owns 1,700,900 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $59,293,000 after purchasing an additional 875,903 shares during the period. Finally, Artemis Investment Management LLP bought a new stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics during the 4th quarter valued at about $26,923,000. Institutional investors own 61.70% of the company’s stock.

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.