Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) Shares Gap Down – Here’s What Happened

Shares of Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI) gapped down prior to trading on Monday . The stock had previously closed at $158.41, but opened at $149.25. Applied Optoelectronics shares last traded at $167.6540, with a volume of 3,380,159 shares traded.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AAOI has been the topic of several research reports. Needham & Company LLC lifted their price target on Applied Optoelectronics from $43.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 27th. Raymond James Financial restated an “outperform” rating and set a $160.00 price target on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research report on Friday, May 8th. 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. Rosenblatt Securities restated a “buy” rating and set a $50.00 price target on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research report on Thursday, February 19th. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut Applied Optoelectronics from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Monday, April 13th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Applied Optoelectronics has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $79.80.

Applied Optoelectronics Stock Up 14.1%

The company has a quick ratio of 3.03, a current ratio of 3.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. The company has a market cap of $14.50 billion, a P/E ratio of -273.81 and a beta of 3.67. The company has a fifty day moving average of $146.55 and a 200 day moving average of $81.12.

Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 7th. The semiconductor company reported ($0.07) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.05) by ($0.02). Applied Optoelectronics had a negative return on equity of 4.64% and a negative net margin of 8.55%.The firm had revenue of $151.14 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $156.98 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned ($0.02) EPS. The business’s revenue was up 51.3% on a year-over-year basis. Applied Optoelectronics has set its Q2 2026 guidance at -0.030-0.030 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. will post 0.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Applied Optoelectronics

In other Applied Optoelectronics news, CFO Stefan J. Murry sold 33,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $173.26, for a total transaction of $5,717,580.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 451,906 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $78,297,233.56. The trade was a 6.81% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, Director Cynthia Delaney sold 56,575 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $189.23, for a total value of $10,705,687.25. Following the sale, the director directly owned 59,647 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,287,001.81. This represents a 48.68% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 515,899 shares of company stock valued at $69,774,638 in the last ninety days. 3.80% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Applied Optoelectronics

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in AAOI. Allworth Financial LP grew its position 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 in the last quarter. Comerica Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics during the third quarter worth about $28,000. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. boosted its stake in 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 valued at $42,000 after buying an additional 750 shares during the last quarter. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC bought a new position in Applied Optoelectronics during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $55,000. Finally, Headlands Technologies LLC bought a new position in Applied Optoelectronics during the second quarter valued at approximately $57,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 61.70% of the company’s stock.

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.