Canada Pension Plan Investment Board Makes New Investment in Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. $AAOI

Canada Pension Plan Investment Board acquired a new stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 188,500 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock, valued at approximately $27,928,000. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board owned about 0.22% of Applied Optoelectronics as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. California State Teachers Retirement System increased its position in Applied Optoelectronics by 23.2% during the first quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 70,464 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $5,961,000 after buying an additional 13,265 shares during the last quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB acquired a new stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics in the second quarter valued at approximately $7,719,000. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics in the second quarter valued at approximately $955,672,000. Andar Capital Management HK Ltd bought a new position in shares of Applied Optoelectronics during the 1st quarter worth approximately $11,335,000. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. bought a new position in shares of Applied Optoelectronics during the 1st quarter worth approximately $4,125,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 61.70% of the company’s stock.

Applied Optoelectronics Price Performance

Applied Optoelectronics stock opened at $106.23 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $8.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -136.19 and a beta of 3.76. The company has a current ratio of 2.78, a quick ratio of 2.13 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. has a 12 month low of $18.50 and a 12 month high of $233.67. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $121.74 and its 200-day moving average is $127.24.

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently weighed in on AAOI. Raymond James Financial reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $178.00 target price on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a report on Tuesday, August 11th. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $220.00 price objective on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research report on Friday, August 7th. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Applied Optoelectronics from a “sell (d-)” rating to a “sell (e+)” rating in a report on Monday, August 17th. Needham & Company LLC decreased their price objective on shares of Applied Optoelectronics from $220.00 to $190.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, August 7th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised shares of Applied Optoelectronics from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 8th. Three 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’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Applied Optoelectronics presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $139.40.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Shu-Hua (Joshua) Yeh sold 28,826 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $166.53, for a total value of $4,800,393.78. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 400,207 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $66,646,471.71. The trade was a 6.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, 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 transaction of $6,880,127.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 286,124 shares in the company, valued at $48,812,754.40. This trade represents a 12.35% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 272,629 shares of company stock worth $45,881,654. Corporate insiders own 3.80% 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.