Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) Trading 8.7% Higher – Time to Buy?

Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI) shares were up 8.7% during trading on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $29.40 and last traded at $29.51. Approximately 2,206,160 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 53% from the average daily volume of 4,708,438 shares. The stock had previously closed at $27.14.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on AAOI shares. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $50.00 price objective on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a report on Friday. Northland Securities set a $45.00 price target on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research note on Thursday, December 11th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. B. Riley restated a “sell” rating and issued a $15.00 target price on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research report on Monday, November 10th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC lifted their price target on Applied Optoelectronics from $38.00 to $43.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 11th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $35.60.

Applied Optoelectronics Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23, a quick ratio of 1.63 and a current ratio of 2.31. The stock has a market cap of $2.14 billion, a PE ratio of -9.73 and a beta of 3.25. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $28.60 and a two-hundred day moving average of $26.10.

Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) last released its earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The semiconductor company reported ($0.09) earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.10) by $0.01. The business had revenue of $118.63 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $119.77 million. Applied Optoelectronics had a negative net margin of 36.97% and a negative return on equity of 7.34%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 82.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted ($0.21) earnings per share. Applied Optoelectronics has set its Q4 2025 guidance at -0.130–0.040 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. will post -1.18 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Applied Optoelectronics

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Applied Optoelectronics by 14.4% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,779,563 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $42,666,000 after buying an additional 350,145 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 5.2% during the first quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 124,432 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $1,910,000 after acquiring an additional 6,183 shares in the last quarter. Swiss National Bank raised its holdings in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 15.4% during the first quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 88,200 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $1,354,000 after acquiring an additional 11,800 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in Applied Optoelectronics by 17.3% in the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 40,556 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $623,000 after purchasing an additional 5,971 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in Applied Optoelectronics in the first quarter valued at about $1,643,000. 61.72% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other 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.