Insider Selling: Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) Insider Sells 29,000 Shares of Stock

Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI) insider David Kuo sold 29,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $100.13, for a total transaction of $2,903,770.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 82,663 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,277,046.19. This trade represents a 25.97% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink.

Applied Optoelectronics Trading Up 9.4%

AAOI traded up $8.22 during trading on Monday, hitting $95.76. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 10,127,586 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,058,122. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $61.32 and its 200-day moving average price is $40.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a current ratio of 2.63 and a quick ratio of 1.91. The stock has a market cap of $7.20 billion, a PE ratio of -147.32 and a beta of 3.20. Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. has a twelve month low of $9.71 and a twelve month 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 (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.12) by $0.11. The business had revenue of $134.27 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $131.56 million. Applied Optoelectronics had a negative return on equity of 5.29% and a negative net margin of 8.39%.The business’s revenue was up 33.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned ($0.02) earnings per share. Applied Optoelectronics has set its Q1 2026 guidance at -0.090-0.000 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. will post -1.18 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on AAOI shares. Northland Securities reiterated a “market perform” rating and set a $55.00 price objective on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a report on Friday, February 27th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Applied Optoelectronics from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, February 28th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research report on Wednesday, January 21st. B. Riley Financial raised shares of Applied Optoelectronics from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $54.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 27th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “buy” rating and set a $50.00 price objective on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research note on Thursday, February 19th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $52.80.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Applied Optoelectronics

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in AAOI. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Applied Optoelectronics by 7.7% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,982,660 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $173,696,000 after buying an additional 358,090 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 5,208.9% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,512,309 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $122,439,000 after acquiring an additional 3,446,150 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its position in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 2,188,630 shares during the last quarter. Hawk Ridge Capital Management LP lifted its stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 106.2% in the fourth quarter. Hawk Ridge Capital Management LP now owns 1,700,900 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $59,293,000 after acquiring an additional 875,903 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted its stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 157.1% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 1,699,855 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $59,257,000 after acquiring an additional 1,038,775 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 61.70% of the company’s stock.

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.