Insider Selling: Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) Director Sells $242,500.00 in Stock

Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI) Director Min-Chu (Mike) Chen sold 2,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $97.00, for a total transaction of $242,500.00. Following the sale, the director owned 20,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,940,000. This represents a 11.11% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink.

Min-Chu (Mike) Chen also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Monday, March 9th, Min-Chu (Mike) Chen sold 8,835 shares of Applied Optoelectronics stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $108.72, for a total value of $960,541.20.

Applied Optoelectronics Price Performance

Applied Optoelectronics stock opened at $106.19 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.99 billion, a P/E ratio of -163.37 and a beta of 3.20. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $54.51 and its 200 day moving average price is $37.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a quick ratio of 1.91 and a current ratio of 2.63. Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. has a 1 year low of $9.71 and a 1 year high of $128.96.

Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 26th. The semiconductor company reported ($0.01) earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 company had revenue of $134.27 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $131.56 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted ($0.02) earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 33.9% on a year-over-year basis. Applied Optoelectronics has set its Q1 2026 guidance at -0.090-0.000 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. will post -1.18 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Applied Optoelectronics

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Invesco Ltd. increased its position in Applied Optoelectronics by 5,208.9% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,512,309 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $122,439,000 after purchasing an additional 3,446,150 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its stake in Applied Optoelectronics by 5,321.6% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 2,229,757 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $77,730,000 after purchasing an additional 2,188,630 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley boosted its holdings in Applied Optoelectronics by 157.1% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 1,699,855 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $59,257,000 after purchasing an additional 1,038,775 shares during the last quarter. Hawk Ridge Capital Management LP boosted its holdings in Applied Optoelectronics by 106.2% in the 4th quarter. Hawk Ridge Capital Management LP now owns 1,700,900 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $59,293,000 after purchasing an additional 875,903 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Artemis Investment Management LLP purchased a new stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $26,923,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 61.70% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently issued reports on AAOI. Northland Securities reiterated a “market perform” rating and issued a $55.00 price objective on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a report on Friday, February 27th. Wall Street Zen raised Applied Optoelectronics from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, February 28th. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research report on Wednesday, January 21st. Needham & Company LLC lifted their price target on Applied Optoelectronics from $43.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 27th. Finally, B. Riley Financial upgraded Applied Optoelectronics from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $54.00 price target for the company in a research report on Friday, February 27th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target 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.