Principal Financial Group Inc. Invests $669,000 in Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. $AAOI

Principal Financial Group Inc. bought a new stake in Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI) in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor bought 7,910 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock, valued at approximately $669,000.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. increased its position in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 10.4% during the first quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 25,579 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $393,000 after acquiring an additional 2,415 shares during the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers purchased a new position in Applied Optoelectronics in the second quarter worth $377,000. New York State Common Retirement Fund boosted its position in Applied Optoelectronics by 36.0% in the second quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 17,000 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $437,000 after purchasing an additional 4,500 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in Applied Optoelectronics by 50.0% in the 2nd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 60,817 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $1,562,000 after purchasing an additional 20,261 shares during the period. Finally, First Trust Advisors LP bought a new position in Applied Optoelectronics in the 2nd quarter valued at $952,000. 61.70% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Applied Optoelectronics Stock Performance

NASDAQ:AAOI opened at $94.32 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a current ratio of 3.83 and a quick ratio of 3.03. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $142.06 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $114.97. Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. has a 1 year low of $18.50 and a 1 year high of $233.67. The company has a market capitalization of $7.57 billion, a P/E ratio of -142.91 and a beta of 3.69.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Shu-Hua (Joshua) Yeh sold 1,285 shares of Applied Optoelectronics stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $120.02, for a total value of $154,225.70. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 392,922 shares in the company, valued at $47,158,498.44. This trade represents a 0.33% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider David C. Kuo sold 29,227 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $166.53, for a total transaction of $4,867,172.31. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 149,078 shares in the company, valued at approximately $24,825,959.34. This trade represents a 16.39% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Insiders sold a total of 501,500 shares of company stock worth $86,812,999 in the last ninety days. 3.80% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently commented on AAOI. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $220.00 target price on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research note on Monday, June 22nd. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research report on Tuesday, July 7th. Needham & Company LLC decreased their price objective on shares of Applied Optoelectronics from $260.00 to $220.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 22nd. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Applied Optoelectronics from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Monday, April 13th. Finally, Raymond James Financial reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research report on Wednesday, June 10th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $141.80.

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.