Northland Securities Reaffirms “Market Perform” Rating for Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI)

Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI)‘s stock had its “market perform” rating restated by equities research analysts at Northland Securities in a report released on Friday. They currently have a $55.00 price objective on the semiconductor company’s stock. Northland Securities’ price objective would suggest a potential upside of 2.44% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other brokerages have also recently weighed in on AAOI. Rosenblatt Securities restated a “buy” rating and set a $50.00 target price on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a report on Thursday, February 19th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research report on Wednesday, January 21st. Needham & Company LLC lifted their target price on Applied Optoelectronics from $43.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. Finally, B. Riley Financial raised Applied Optoelectronics from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $15.00 to $54.00 in a research report on Friday. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Applied Optoelectronics has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $52.80.

Applied Optoelectronics Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ AAOI opened at $53.69 on Friday. Applied Optoelectronics has a twelve month low of $9.71 and a twelve month high of $59.25. The company has a current ratio of 2.31, a quick ratio of 1.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23. The company has a market capitalization of $3.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -16.67 and a beta of 3.32. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $41.10 and a two-hundred day moving average of $32.15.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Stefan J. Murry sold 11,693 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.25, for a total value of $587,573.25. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 290,050 shares in the company, valued at $14,575,012.50. This represents a 3.88% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider David C. Kuo sold 17,467 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.17, for a total transaction of $876,319.39. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 111,663 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,602,132.71. This trade represents a 13.53% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 66,520 shares of company stock worth $3,080,367 in the last quarter. 4.50% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 497.5% during the 2nd quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 962 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 801 shares during the period. Allworth Financial LP increased its stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 1,923.7% in the fourth quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 769 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $27,000 after acquiring an additional 731 shares during the last quarter. Comerica Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics during the third quarter worth $28,000. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. boosted its position in Applied Optoelectronics by 166.7% during the fourth 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 last quarter. Finally, Pinpoint Asset Management Singapore Pte. Ltd. acquired a new stake in Applied Optoelectronics during the second quarter valued at $49,000. 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: Q4 results beat expectations — AAOI reported EPS of ($0.01) vs. consensus ($0.12) and revenue of $134.3M (up 33.9% YoY), outperforming estimates. That beat is driving bullish investor response. GlobeNewswire Release
• Positive Sentiment: Company issued a stronger-than-expected revenue outlook for Q1 2026 — guidance of $150M–$165M vs. Street ~$145.6M — which supports the bullish case even though EPS guidance is wide. Market press noted the stock “surged” on the beat + outlook. Investing.com Surge Coverage
• Neutral Sentiment: Conference call and official filings are available for details — useful for investors who want management commentary on demand trends and margin outlook. Earnings Call / Transcript
• Neutral Sentiment: Reported short interest updates show a purported “significant increase” in February, but the published numbers are inconsistent/0 and appear unreliable — treat this data cautiously until corrected. (Note: days-to-cover and shares figures reported as 0/NaN.)
• Negative Sentiment: EPS guidance range for Q1 (‑$0.090 to $0.000) is weaker than consensus (‑$0.070), leaving room for disappointment on profitability even as revenue guidance was raised. MSN Coverage
• Negative Sentiment: AAOI was included in a list of “Stocks Investors Have Ditched,” reflecting some bearish sentiment/rotation risk among retail or thematic sellers that could pressure the name if momentum fades. InsiderMonkey Article

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.