Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) Cut to “Sell” at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research note published on Saturday morning.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. Needham & Company LLC increased their price target on Applied Optoelectronics from $43.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 27th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research note on Wednesday, January 21st. Northland Securities reissued a “market perform” rating and set a $55.00 target price on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research note on Friday, February 27th. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $50.00 target price on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a report on Thursday, February 19th. Finally, B. Riley Financial raised Applied Optoelectronics from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $54.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 27th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $52.80.

Applied Optoelectronics Stock Down 13.3%

AAOI opened at $85.19 on Friday. Applied Optoelectronics has a twelve month low of $9.71 and a twelve month high of $128.96. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $69.15 and a 200 day moving average price of $44.11. The company has a quick ratio of 1.91, a current ratio of 2.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. The company has a market cap of $6.41 billion, a PE ratio of -131.06 and a beta of 3.19.

Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 26th. The semiconductor company reported ($0.01) earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.12) by $0.11. The business had revenue of $134.27 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $131.56 million. Applied Optoelectronics had a negative return on equity of 5.29% and a negative net margin of 8.39%.The business’s quarterly revenue was up 33.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted ($0.02) earnings per share. Applied Optoelectronics has set its Q1 2026 guidance at -0.090-0.000 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Applied Optoelectronics will post -1.18 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider David C. Kuo sold 29,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $100.13, for a total value of $2,903,770.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 82,663 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,277,046.19. The trade was a 25.97% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Hung-Lun (Fred) Chang sold 36,400 shares of the firm’s 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 owned 233,618 shares in the company, valued at $23,420,204.50. This represents a 13.48% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last three months, insiders sold 326,333 shares of company stock worth $29,392,957. Corporate insiders own 4.50% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Applied Optoelectronics

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Comerica Bank grew its stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 27.6% in the 4th quarter. Comerica Bank now owns 1,386 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $48,000 after purchasing an additional 300 shares during the last quarter. AlphaQuest LLC increased its holdings in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 7.9% in the third quarter. AlphaQuest LLC now owns 7,503 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $195,000 after purchasing an additional 551 shares during the period. Police & Firemen s Retirement System of New Jersey raised its stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 3.6% during the fourth quarter. Police & Firemen s Retirement System of New Jersey now owns 16,073 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $560,000 after purchasing an additional 556 shares during the last quarter. Allworth Financial LP raised its stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 1,923.7% during the fourth quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 769 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 731 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. lifted its holdings in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 166.7% during the fourth quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 1,200 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $42,000 after purchasing an additional 750 shares during the period. 61.70% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.