Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) Shares Up 6% – Should You Buy?

Shares of Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI) were up 6% during mid-day trading on Friday . The stock traded as high as $149.38 and last traded at $145.9270. Approximately 2,125,263 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 77% from the average daily volume of 9,222,730 shares. The stock had previously closed at $137.73.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AAOI has been the topic of several research reports. Wall Street Zen downgraded Applied Optoelectronics from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Monday, April 13th. Needham & Company LLC boosted their price target on Applied Optoelectronics from $43.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 27th. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $50.00 price objective on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a report on Thursday, February 19th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research report on Wednesday, January 21st. Finally, B. Riley Financial raised Applied Optoelectronics from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $54.00 target price for the company in a report on Friday, February 27th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have given 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 $52.80.

Applied Optoelectronics Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a quick ratio of 1.91 and a current ratio of 2.63. The company has a market cap of $12.89 billion, a P/E ratio of -251.72 and a beta of 3.23. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $101.69 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $56.93.

Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 26th. The semiconductor company reported ($0.01) EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.12) by $0.11. Applied Optoelectronics had a negative net margin of 8.39% and a negative return on equity of 5.29%. The business had revenue of $134.27 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $131.56 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned ($0.02) earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 33.9% on a year-over-year basis. Applied Optoelectronics has set its Q1 2026 guidance at -0.090-0.000 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. will post 0.66 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Applied Optoelectronics news, insider Hung-Lun (Fred) Chang sold 36,400 shares of Applied Optoelectronics stock in a transaction dated 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. The trade was a 13.48% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Min-Chu (Mike) Chen sold 8,835 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $108.72, for a total value of $960,541.20. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 169,300 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $18,406,296. The trade was a 4.96% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 326,333 shares of company stock valued at $29,802,706 over the last ninety days. 4.50% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of AAOI. Global Trust Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 114.2% during the 1st quarter. Global Trust Asset Management LLC now owns 59,562 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $5,038,000 after acquiring an additional 31,758 shares in the last quarter. Dupree Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in Applied Optoelectronics in the 1st quarter worth about $692,000. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA increased its holdings in Applied Optoelectronics by 30.0% in the 1st quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 10,307 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $872,000 after purchasing an additional 2,380 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. bought a new position in Applied Optoelectronics in the first quarter valued at about $4,125,000. Finally, Krilogy Financial LLC bought a new position in Applied Optoelectronics in the first quarter valued at about $151,000. 61.70% of the stock is currently owned by 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.