Royce & Associates LP Decreases Holdings in Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. $AAOI

Royce & Associates LP lowered its stake in Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI) by 7.7% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 836,853 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after selling 69,800 shares during the period. Royce & Associates LP owned approximately 1.23% of Applied Optoelectronics worth $21,700,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. CloudAlpha Capital Management Limited Hong Kong increased its position in Applied Optoelectronics by 410.7% during the second quarter. CloudAlpha Capital Management Limited Hong Kong now owns 1,408,983 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $36,197,000 after acquiring an additional 1,133,115 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Applied Optoelectronics by 13.6% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,624,570 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $119,915,000 after purchasing an additional 551,910 shares during the last quarter. Citigroup Inc. raised its position in Applied Optoelectronics by 60.0% in the 3rd quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 1,160,456 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $30,091,000 after purchasing an additional 435,349 shares during the period. New York State Common Retirement Fund raised its position in Applied Optoelectronics by 1,618.6% in the 3rd quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 292,167 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $7,576,000 after purchasing an additional 275,167 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Applied Optoelectronics by 18.8% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,285,693 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $33,034,000 after purchasing an additional 203,830 shares during the last quarter. 61.70% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Applied Optoelectronics

In related news, insider David C. Kuo sold 17,467 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.17, for a total value of $876,319.39. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 111,663 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,602,132.71. This trade represents a 13.53% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Stefan J. Murry sold 11,693 shares of Applied Optoelectronics stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.25, for a total transaction of $587,573.25. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 290,050 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,575,012.50. This trade represents a 3.88% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 66,520 shares of company stock valued at $3,080,367. Company insiders own 4.50% of the company’s stock.

Applied Optoelectronics Stock Up 56.9%

Shares of Applied Optoelectronics stock opened at $84.23 on Monday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $42.16 and its 200-day moving average price is $32.72. The company has a market cap of $6.33 billion, a P/E ratio of -129.58 and a beta of 3.19. The company has a quick ratio of 1.91, a current ratio of 2.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. has a 52-week low of $9.71 and a 52-week high of $84.31.

Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 26th. The semiconductor company reported ($0.01) EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.12) by $0.11. Applied Optoelectronics had a negative net margin of 8.39% and a negative return on equity of 5.29%. The firm had revenue of $134.27 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $131.56 million. During the same period last year, the firm posted ($0.02) EPS. Applied Optoelectronics’s revenue was up 33.9% on a year-over-year basis. Applied Optoelectronics has set its Q1 2026 guidance at -0.090-0.000 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. will post -1.18 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently commented on AAOI shares. B. Riley Financial raised Applied Optoelectronics from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their target price for the company from $15.00 to $54.00 in a research note on Friday. Needham & Company LLC boosted their price objective on Applied Optoelectronics from $43.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $50.00 target price on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research note on Thursday, February 19th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research report on Wednesday, January 21st. Finally, Northland Securities reissued a “market perform” rating and set a $55.00 target price on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research note on Friday. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Applied Optoelectronics presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $52.80.

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.