Stefan Murry Sells 4,000 Shares of Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) Stock

Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI) CFO Stefan Murry sold 4,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $122.09, for a total transaction of $488,360.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 380,576 shares in the company, valued at $46,464,523.84. This represents a 1.04% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

Applied Optoelectronics Trading Down 13.0%

Shares of Applied Optoelectronics stock opened at $109.09 on Thursday. Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. has a 1 year low of $18.50 and a 1 year high of $233.67. 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 business has a 50 day moving average price of $161.46 and a 200 day moving average price of $110.17. The company has a market capitalization of $8.75 billion, a P/E ratio of -165.29 and a beta of 3.69.

Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) last announced its 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). The company had revenue of $151.14 million for 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%. Applied Optoelectronics’s quarterly revenue was up 51.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted ($0.02) EPS. Applied Optoelectronics has set its Q2 2026 guidance at -0.030-0.030 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. will post 0.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Applied Optoelectronics

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in AAOI. Tema ETFs LLC acquired a new position in Applied Optoelectronics in the second quarter valued at $62,000. Allworth Financial LP boosted its stake in Applied Optoelectronics by 1,923.7% in the 4th 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. NFSG Corp purchased a new stake in Applied Optoelectronics in the 1st quarter valued at about $85,000. Comerica Bank purchased a new stake in Applied Optoelectronics in the 3rd quarter valued at about $28,000. Finally, Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. increased its stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 166.7% during the 4th quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 1,200 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $42,000 after acquiring an additional 750 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 61.70% of the company’s stock.

Applied Optoelectronics News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Applied Optoelectronics this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Applied Optoelectronics announced it has begun expanding its Pearland, Texas manufacturing campus to add nearly 400,000 square feet of capacity for 800G and 1.6T optical transceiver production, reinforcing its role in the AI data-center supply chain. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Some market commentary says AAOI still looks reasonable despite its huge five-year gain, suggesting investors may still see upside if AI-infrastructure demand remains strong. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Tradr ETFs launched 2x short leveraged funds tied to AAOI, which may increase trading interest and volatility but does not change the company’s fundamentals directly. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: CFO Stefan Murry sold 4,000 shares in a pre-arranged 10b5-1 plan, a minor insider sale that can still add to near-term investor caution. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Shares are also slipping as investors pull back from the “AI optics” trade, with peers such as Coherent and Lumentum also weaker, indicating sector-wide profit taking rather than company-specific news. Article Title

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently commented on AAOI. Raymond James Financial reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research report on Wednesday, June 10th. Rosenblatt Securities restated a “buy” rating and issued a $220.00 target price on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a report on Monday, June 22nd. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research note on Tuesday, July 7th. 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 given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Applied Optoelectronics presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $113.80.

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.