Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) Trading Up 8.3% – Here’s What Happened

Shares of Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI) rose 8.3% on Friday . The stock traded as high as $37.50 and last traded at $37.7380. Approximately 737,788 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 85% from the average daily volume of 4,959,966 shares. The stock had previously closed at $34.86.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have commented on the stock. Needham & Company LLC upped their price objective on shares of Applied Optoelectronics from $38.00 to $43.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, December 11th. B. Riley restated a “sell” rating and set a $15.00 price target on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research note on Monday, November 10th. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $50.00 price objective on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research note on Friday, December 19th. Northland Securities set a $45.00 target price on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a report on Thursday, December 11th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Applied Optoelectronics has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $35.60.

Applied Optoelectronics Price Performance

The business’s 50-day moving average price is $29.77 and its 200 day moving average price is $27.43. The company has a market capitalization of $2.65 billion, a P/E ratio of -12.05 and a beta of 3.25. The company has a quick ratio of 1.63, a current ratio of 2.31 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23.

Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 6th. The semiconductor company reported ($0.09) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.10) by $0.01. Applied Optoelectronics had a negative return on equity of 7.34% and a negative net margin of 36.97%.The company had revenue of $118.63 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $119.77 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted ($0.21) earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 82.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Applied Optoelectronics has set its Q4 2025 guidance at -0.130–0.040 EPS. Analysts anticipate that Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. will post -1.18 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Applied Optoelectronics news, insider David C. Kuo sold 12,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.15, for a total transaction of $501,875.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 130,948 shares in the company, valued at $5,257,562.20. This trade represents a 8.71% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 4.50% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Applied Optoelectronics

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in AAOI. AlphaQuest LLC raised its position in Applied Optoelectronics by 7.9% in the 3rd quarter. AlphaQuest LLC now owns 7,503 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $195,000 after purchasing an additional 551 shares during the period. Rhumbline Advisers grew its stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 1.1% during the first quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 61,017 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $937,000 after buying an additional 669 shares during the last quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 497.5% during the second quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 962 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 801 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its holdings in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 85.9% in the second quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,785 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $46,000 after buying an additional 825 shares during the period. Finally, Corebridge Financial Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 4.2% in the first quarter. Corebridge Financial Inc. now owns 21,096 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $324,000 after buying an additional 843 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other 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.