Gamco Investors INC. ET AL Lowers Stock Holdings in Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. $AAOI

Gamco Investors INC. ET AL lowered its stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI) by 68.3% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 9,200 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after selling 19,800 shares during the period. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL’s holdings in Applied Optoelectronics were worth $321,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in AAOI. Allworth Financial LP grew its holdings in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 1,923.7% during the fourth quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 769 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 731 shares during the last quarter. Comerica Bank acquired a new stake in Applied Optoelectronics in the third quarter valued at about $28,000. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC acquired a new position in shares of Applied Optoelectronics during the 4th quarter worth approximately $55,000. Headlands Technologies LLC acquired a new position in shares of Applied Optoelectronics during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $57,000. Finally, SBI Securities Co. Ltd. raised its position in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 190.6% during the 4th quarter. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. now owns 1,927 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $67,000 after purchasing an additional 1,264 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 61.70% of the company’s stock.

Applied Optoelectronics Trading Up 2.6%

Applied Optoelectronics stock opened at $181.49 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $138.74 and a 200-day simple moving average of $75.74. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $14.56 billion, a PE ratio of -274.98 and a beta of 3.76. Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. has a 12-month low of $15.06 and a 12-month high of $233.67.

Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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). The company had revenue of $151.14 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $156.98 million. Applied Optoelectronics had a negative net margin of 8.55% and a negative return on equity of 4.64%. The company’s revenue was up 51.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned ($0.02) earnings per share. Applied Optoelectronics has set its Q2 2026 guidance at -0.030-0.030 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. will post 0.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Applied Optoelectronics

In related news, insider Shu-Hua (Joshua) Yeh sold 39,154 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $173.26, for a total transaction of $6,783,822.04. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 462,430 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $80,120,621.80. This represents a 7.81% 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 sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, insider Hung-Lun (Fred) Chang sold 33,630 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $173.26, for a total transaction of $5,826,733.80. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 391,750 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $67,874,605. This represents a 7.91% 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. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 459,324 shares of company stock valued at $59,068,951. Corporate insiders own 3.80% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have commented on AAOI. Northland Securities reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and issued a $55.00 target price on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research note on Friday, February 27th. Raymond James Financial restated an “outperform” rating and set a $160.00 target price on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a report on Friday, May 8th. Rosenblatt Securities restated a “buy” rating and set a $50.00 target price on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a report on Thursday, February 19th. 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. Finally, B. Riley Financial upgraded 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. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $79.80.

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.