Needham & Company LLC Cuts Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) Price Target to $220.00

Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) had its price objective reduced by Needham & Company LLC from $260.00 to $220.00 in a research report released on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a buy rating on the semiconductor company’s stock.

Other equities analysts have also issued research reports about the stock. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research report on Tuesday, July 7th. Raymond James Financial reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a report on Wednesday, June 10th. Rosenblatt Securities restated a “buy” rating and issued a $220.00 price target on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research report on Monday, June 22nd. 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 equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $141.80.

Applied Optoelectronics Price Performance

NASDAQ AAOI opened at $100.15 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $150.48 and a 200 day simple moving average of $113.09. Applied Optoelectronics has a twelve month low of $18.50 and a twelve month high of $233.67. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.04 billion, a PE ratio of -151.74 and a beta of 3.69. 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 released its earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The semiconductor company reported ($0.07) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.05) by ($0.02). The business had revenue of $151.14 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $156.98 million. Applied Optoelectronics had a negative net margin of 8.55% and a negative return on equity of 4.64%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 51.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned ($0.02) EPS. Applied Optoelectronics has set its Q2 2026 guidance at -0.030-0.030 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that Applied Optoelectronics will post 0.6 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Applied Optoelectronics

In other news, insider David C. Kuo sold 29,227 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $166.53, for a total transaction of $4,867,172.31. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 149,078 shares in the company, valued at approximately $24,825,959.34. The trade was a 16.39% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, insider Shu-Hua (Joshua) Yeh sold 6,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $171.89, for a total value of $1,031,340.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 394,207 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $67,760,241.23. This trade represents a 1.50% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 500,215 shares of company stock valued at $86,658,774 in the last quarter. 3.80% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Applied Optoelectronics

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Allworth Financial LP lifted its stake in 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 purchasing an additional 731 shares during the period. Comerica Bank acquired a new stake in Applied Optoelectronics during the third quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. grew its stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 166.7% in the 4th quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 1,200 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $42,000 after purchasing an additional 750 shares during the period. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC acquired a new position in shares of Applied Optoelectronics in the 4th quarter worth approximately $55,000. Finally, Headlands Technologies LLC acquired a new position in shares of Applied Optoelectronics in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $57,000. 61.70% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.