Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) Issues Q3 2026 Earnings Guidance

Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) updated its third quarter 2026 earnings guidance on Thursday morning. The company provided earnings per share guidance of 0.110-0.260 for the period, compared to the consensus earnings per share estimate of 0.270. The company issued revenue guidance of $255.0 million-$290.0 million, compared to the consensus revenue estimate of $265.7 million.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on AAOI shares. Raymond James Financial reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research note on Wednesday, June 10th. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “buy” rating and set a $220.00 price target on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research report on Monday, June 22nd. Wall Street Zen downgraded Applied Optoelectronics from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Monday, April 13th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research report on Tuesday, July 7th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC cut their target price on shares of Applied Optoelectronics from $260.00 to $220.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 22nd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $141.80.

Applied Optoelectronics Stock Performance

Shares of Applied Optoelectronics stock traded down $4.34 during trading on Thursday, reaching $124.22. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 15,005,061 shares, compared to its average volume of 10,545,610. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $138.69 and its 200-day moving average price is $117.41. The firm has a market cap of $9.97 billion, a PE ratio of -188.21 and a beta of 3.76. Applied Optoelectronics has a 52 week low of $18.50 and a 52 week high of $233.67. The company has a quick ratio of 3.03, a current ratio of 3.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18.

Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 6th. The semiconductor company reported $0.06 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.02 by $0.04. Applied Optoelectronics had a negative net margin of 8.55% and a negative return on equity of 4.64%. The business had revenue of $191.92 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $190.48 million. Applied Optoelectronics has set its Q3 2026 guidance at 0.110-0.260 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Applied Optoelectronics will post 0.6 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Applied Optoelectronics

In other news, CEO Chih-Hsiang (Thompson) Lin sold 59,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $166.53, for a total value of $9,825,270.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 1,302,436 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $216,894,667.08. This represents a 4.33% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, CFO Stefan J. Murry sold 33,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 451,906 shares in the company, valued at $78,297,233.56. The trade was a 6.81% decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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. In the last three months, insiders sold 506,215 shares of company stock valued at $87,409,447. 3.80% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Police & Firemen s Retirement System of New Jersey raised its holdings 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 valued at $560,000 after purchasing an additional 556 shares during the period. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. grew its stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 166.7% in the 4th 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 period. MetLife Investment Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 2.9% in the 4th quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC now owns 33,089 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $1,153,000 after buying an additional 943 shares during the period. Comerica Bank bought a new stake in Applied Optoelectronics in the 3rd quarter valued at about $28,000. Finally, Inceptionr LLC increased its position in Applied Optoelectronics by 12.1% in the 4th quarter. Inceptionr LLC now owns 10,855 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $378,000 after buying an additional 1,175 shares in the last quarter. 61.70% of the stock is 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.