Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) CFO Stefan Murry Sells 33,000 Shares

Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI) CFO Stefan Murry sold 33,000 shares of Applied Optoelectronics stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $173.26, for a total value of $5,717,580.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 451,906 shares in the company, valued at approximately $78,297,233.56. This trade represents a 6.81% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards.

Applied Optoelectronics Stock Down 1.1%

Applied Optoelectronics stock opened at $171.33 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a current ratio of 3.83 and a quick ratio of 3.03. Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. has a 1-year low of $15.06 and a 1-year high of $233.67. The company has a market cap of $13.75 billion, a PE ratio of -259.59 and a beta of 3.76. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $135.43 and its 200 day moving average price is $73.08.

Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The semiconductor company reported ($0.07) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates 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 business had revenue of $151.14 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $156.98 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned ($0.02) earnings per share. The firm’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, sell-side analysts predict that Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. will post 0.66 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Applied Optoelectronics

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Cinctive Capital Management LP purchased a new stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics in the third quarter valued at about $800,000. Diker Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics in the third quarter valued at about $519,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 13.6% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,624,570 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $119,915,000 after purchasing an additional 551,910 shares in the last quarter. AI Squared Management Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics in the third quarter valued at about $5,043,000. Finally, Trilogy Capital Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics in the fourth quarter valued at about $235,000. 61.70% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently commented on AAOI. Needham & Company LLC boosted their price objective on shares of Applied Optoelectronics from $43.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 27th. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “buy” rating and set a $50.00 price objective on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a report on Thursday, February 19th. Raymond James Financial reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $160.00 price objective on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a report on Friday, May 8th. B. Riley Financial raised shares of Applied Optoelectronics from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $54.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Friday, February 27th. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Applied Optoelectronics from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Monday, April 13th. Three 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 data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $79.80.

Applied Optoelectronics News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Applied Optoelectronics this week:

• Neutral Sentiment: CEO Chih-Hsiang (Thompson) Lin sold 58,000 shares, CFO Stefan J. Murry sold 33,000 shares, and other insiders also sold stock, but the company said the transactions were tied to tax withholding on equity award vesting.
• Neutral Sentiment: Applied Optoelectronics recently filed a prospectus supplement for a $600 million at-the-market stock offering, which raised investor concerns about potential dilution and added a near-term overhang.
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst commentary remains constructive overall, with recent buy ratings and a bullish thesis tied to strong hyperscaler demand for AI optical infrastructure and expanding demand for 800G and 1.6T optics.
• Negative Sentiment: The stock has also been hit by profit-taking after a sharp run-up, with market commentary noting that AAOI and other AI optics names are pulling back as investors lock in gains.

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.