Insider Selling: Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) Insider Sells 12,500 Shares of Stock

Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI) insider David Kuo sold 12,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.15, for a total value of $501,875.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 130,948 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,257,562.20. This represents a 8.71% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website.

Applied Optoelectronics Price Performance

AAOI traded down $0.42 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $36.75. 3,683,968 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,742,815. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $29.50 and its 200 day moving average price is $27.04. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.51 billion, a PE ratio of -11.41 and a beta of 3.26. Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. has a 1-year low of $9.71 and a 1-year high of $41.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23, a current ratio of 2.31 and a quick ratio of 1.63.

Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The semiconductor company reported ($0.09) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.10) by $0.01. Applied Optoelectronics had a negative return on equity of 7.34% and a negative net margin of 36.97%.The firm had revenue of $118.63 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $119.77 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned ($0.21) EPS. Applied Optoelectronics’s revenue was up 82.1% on a year-over-year basis. Applied Optoelectronics has set its Q4 2025 guidance at -0.130–0.040 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. will post -1.18 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on AAOI shares. Rosenblatt Securities restated a “buy” rating and set a $50.00 price objective on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a report on Friday, December 19th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Needham & Company LLC increased their price objective on shares of Applied Optoelectronics from $38.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, December 11th. B. Riley reaffirmed a “sell” rating and set a $15.00 price target on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research report on Monday, November 10th. Finally, Northland Securities set a $45.00 target price on Applied Optoelectronics in a report on Thursday, December 11th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Applied Optoelectronics has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $35.60.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. AlphaQuest LLC boosted its stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 7.9% during the 3rd quarter. AlphaQuest LLC now owns 7,503 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $195,000 after buying an additional 551 shares during the last quarter. Rhumbline Advisers increased its position in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 1.1% in the 1st quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 61,017 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $937,000 after purchasing an additional 669 shares during the last quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 497.5% during the second quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 962 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 801 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its position in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 85.9% during the second quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,785 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $46,000 after purchasing an additional 825 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Corebridge Financial Inc. grew its stake in Applied Optoelectronics by 4.2% in the first quarter. Corebridge Financial Inc. now owns 21,096 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $324,000 after purchasing an additional 843 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.