Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) Stock Price Up 10.6% – Time to Buy?

Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI) was up 10.6% on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $199.41 and last traded at $203.5680. Approximately 6,122,460 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 38% from the average daily volume of 9,948,419 shares. The stock had previously closed at $184.07.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have weighed in on the company. B. Riley Financial raised Applied Optoelectronics from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $54.00 price target for the company in a research report on Friday, February 27th. Needham & Company LLC lifted their target price 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. Wall Street Zen cut Applied Optoelectronics from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Monday, April 13th. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $50.00 price objective on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research report on Thursday, February 19th. Finally, Northland Securities reiterated a “market perform” rating and issued a $55.00 target price on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research note on Friday, February 27th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $79.80.

Applied Optoelectronics Stock Performance

The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $155.32 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $86.58. The company has a market cap of $14.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -268.18 and a beta of 3.66. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a quick ratio of 3.03 and a current ratio of 3.83.

Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The semiconductor company reported ($0.07) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.05) by ($0.02). The firm had revenue of $151.14 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $156.98 million. Applied Optoelectronics had a negative return on equity of 4.64% and a negative net margin of 8.55%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 51.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted ($0.02) earnings per share. Applied Optoelectronics has set its Q2 2026 guidance at -0.030-0.030 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. will post 0.6 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Applied Optoelectronics

In other Applied Optoelectronics news, CEO Chih-Hsiang (Thompson) Lin sold 58,000 shares of the business’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 transaction of $10,049,080.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,255,693 shares in the company, valued at $390,821,369.18. The trade was a 2.51% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, insider Shu-Hua (Joshua) Yeh sold 50,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $97.10, for a total transaction of $4,855,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 322,051 shares in the company, valued at approximately $31,271,152.10. This represents a 13.44% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 395,068 shares of company stock valued at $59,023,671 in the last three months. 3.80% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Applied Optoelectronics

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. NewEdge Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Applied Optoelectronics in the first quarter valued at $723,000. BankChampaign National Association purchased a new stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics during the first quarter worth about $284,000. Janus Henderson Group PLC boosted its holdings in Applied Optoelectronics by 23.2% in the first quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 29,755 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $2,518,000 after purchasing an additional 5,600 shares during the last quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System increased its holdings in Applied Optoelectronics by 23.2% during the 1st quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 70,464 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $5,961,000 after purchasing an additional 13,265 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada grew its position in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 2,075.3% during the first quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 127,971 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $10,825,000 after buying an additional 122,088 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 61.70% of the company’s stock.

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.