Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) Trading Down 7.1% – What’s Next?

Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI)’s stock price dropped 7.1% during trading on Wednesday . The stock traded as low as $145.55 and last traded at $139.9230. Approximately 1,782,751 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 81% from the average daily volume of 9,230,093 shares. The stock had previously closed at $150.57.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AAOI has been the subject of several research reports. B. Riley Financial upgraded shares of Applied Optoelectronics from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $54.00 price target for the company in a research note on Friday, February 27th. Northland Securities restated a “market perform” rating and issued a $55.00 price target on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research note on Friday, February 27th. Rosenblatt Securities restated a “buy” rating and issued a $50.00 price target on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research note on Thursday, February 19th. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research note on Wednesday, January 21st. Finally, Needham & Company LLC boosted their price target on shares of Applied Optoelectronics from $43.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 27th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $52.80.

Applied Optoelectronics Trading Down 4.7%

The firm has a market capitalization of $11.33 billion, a PE ratio of -221.09 and a beta of 3.23. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $97.79 and its 200-day moving average price is $55.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a quick ratio of 1.91 and a current ratio of 2.63.

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Applied Optoelectronics

In other news, insider Hung-Lun (Fred) Chang sold 36,400 shares of Applied Optoelectronics stock in a transaction on Monday, March 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $100.25, for a total transaction of $3,649,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 233,618 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $23,420,204.50. The trade was a 13.48% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Min-Chu (Mike) Chen sold 8,835 shares of Applied Optoelectronics stock in a transaction on Monday, March 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $108.72, for a total transaction of $960,541.20. Following the sale, the director directly owned 169,300 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $18,406,296. This trade represents a 4.96% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last quarter, insiders sold 326,333 shares of company stock worth $29,802,706. 4.50% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Applied Optoelectronics

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Allworth Financial LP lifted its position in Applied Optoelectronics by 1,923.7% in the fourth quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 769 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 731 shares during the last quarter. Comerica Bank purchased a new stake in Applied Optoelectronics in the third quarter valued at $28,000. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. lifted its position in Applied Optoelectronics by 166.7% in the fourth quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 1,200 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $42,000 after acquiring an additional 750 shares during the last quarter. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC purchased a new stake in Applied Optoelectronics in the fourth quarter valued at $55,000. Finally, Krilogy Financial LLC purchased a new stake in Applied Optoelectronics in the first quarter valued at $151,000. 61.70% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.