Royce & Associates LP Lowers Stock Holdings in Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. $AAOI

Royce & Associates LP decreased its position in shares of Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI) by 7.5% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 773,948 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after selling 62,905 shares during the period. Royce & Associates LP’s holdings in Applied Optoelectronics were worth $26,980,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in AAOI. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 7.7% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,982,660 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $173,696,000 after buying an additional 358,090 shares during the period. Citigroup Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 60.0% in the third quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 1,160,456 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $30,091,000 after buying an additional 435,349 shares during the period. Hawk Ridge Capital Management LP purchased a new position in shares of Applied Optoelectronics in the third quarter worth about $21,392,000. Artemis Investment Management LLP purchased a new position in shares of Applied Optoelectronics in the fourth quarter worth about $26,923,000. Finally, Alyeska Investment Group L.P. purchased a new position in shares of Applied Optoelectronics in the third quarter worth about $19,738,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 61.70% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have recently commented on the company. Northland Securities reiterated a “market perform” rating and issued a $55.00 price objective on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a report on Friday, February 27th. Raymond James Financial reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $160.00 price objective on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a report on Friday, May 8th. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $50.00 price objective on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a report on Thursday, February 19th. B. Riley Financial upgraded 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 Applied Optoelectronics from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Monday, April 13th. Three equities research 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.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $79.80.

Insider Transactions at Applied Optoelectronics

In other news, 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 value of $5,717,580.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 451,906 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $78,297,233.56. The trade was a 6.81% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, CEO Chih-Hsiang (Thompson) Lin sold 58,000 shares of the company’s 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 $10,049,080.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,255,693 shares in the company, valued at $390,821,369.18. This trade represents a 2.51% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 459,324 shares of company stock worth $59,068,951. Company insiders own 3.80% of the company’s stock.

Applied Optoelectronics Stock Performance

Applied Optoelectronics stock opened at $177.62 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $141.86 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $78.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a quick ratio of 3.03 and a current ratio of 3.83. The stock has a market cap of $14.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -269.12 and a beta of 3.76. Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $15.06 and a fifty-two week high of $233.67.

Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The semiconductor company reported ($0.07) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.05) by ($0.02). Applied Optoelectronics had a negative return on equity of 4.64% and a negative net margin of 8.55%.The company had revenue of $151.14 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $156.98 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned ($0.02) earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter 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. As a group, analysts expect that Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. will post 0.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Applied Optoelectronics 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.