Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) Trading Down 5.2% – Time to Sell?

Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI)’s stock price was down 5.2% during mid-day trading on Thursday . The stock traded as low as $106.13 and last traded at $108.4190. Approximately 2,210,464 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 73% from the average daily volume of 8,181,021 shares. The stock had previously closed at $114.41.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have weighed in on AAOI. Northland Securities restated a “market perform” rating and set a $55.00 price target on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research report on Friday, February 27th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a report on Wednesday, January 21st. Wall Street Zen lowered Applied Optoelectronics from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday. Needham & Company LLC raised their price objective on Applied Optoelectronics from $43.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 27th. Finally, B. Riley Financial upgraded Applied Optoelectronics from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $54.00 target price for the company in a research report on Friday, February 27th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $52.80.

Applied Optoelectronics Price Performance

The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $68.19 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $43.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a current ratio of 2.63 and a quick ratio of 1.91. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.39 billion, a P/E ratio of -151.09 and a beta of 3.20.

Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 26th. The semiconductor company reported ($0.01) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.12) by $0.11. The firm had revenue of $134.27 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $131.56 million. Applied Optoelectronics had a negative return on equity of 5.29% and a negative net margin of 8.39%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 33.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned ($0.02) earnings per share. Applied Optoelectronics has set its Q1 2026 guidance at -0.090-0.000 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. will post -1.18 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Applied Optoelectronics

In other Applied Optoelectronics news, insider Hung-Lun (Fred) Chang sold 36,400 shares of Applied Optoelectronics stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $100.25, for a total value of $3,649,100.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 233,618 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $23,420,204.50. The trade was a 13.48% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Cynthia Delaney sold 21,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $98.02, for a total value of $2,058,420.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 116,222 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,392,080.44. The trade was a 15.30% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold 326,333 shares of company stock worth $29,392,957 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 4.50% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in AAOI. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Applied Optoelectronics by 7.7% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,982,660 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $173,696,000 after buying an additional 358,090 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. increased its position in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 3,446,150 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its position in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 5,321.6% in the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 2,229,757 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $77,730,000 after acquiring an additional 2,188,630 shares during the period. Hawk Ridge Capital Management LP raised its stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 106.2% during the fourth quarter. Hawk Ridge Capital Management LP now owns 1,700,900 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $59,293,000 after acquiring an additional 875,903 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised its stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 157.1% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 1,699,855 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $59,257,000 after acquiring an additional 1,038,775 shares during the last quarter. 61.70% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.