Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) CFO Sells $5,717,580.00 in Stock

Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI) CFO Stefan Murry sold 33,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $173.26, for a total value of $5,717,580.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 451,906 shares in the company, valued at approximately $78,297,233.56. This trade represents a 6.81% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards.

Applied Optoelectronics Stock Down 1.1%

AAOI stock traded down $1.93 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $171.33. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 8,941,358 shares, compared to its average volume of 11,914,948. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a current ratio of 3.83 and a quick ratio of 3.03. Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. has a twelve month low of $15.06 and a twelve month high of $233.67. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $135.43 and its 200 day moving average price is $73.08. The stock has a market capitalization of $13.75 billion, a P/E ratio of -259.59 and a beta of 3.76.

Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The semiconductor company reported ($0.07) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate 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 return on equity of 4.64% and a negative net margin of 8.55%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 51.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned ($0.02) EPS. Applied Optoelectronics has set its Q2 2026 guidance at -0.030-0.030 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. will post 0.66 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. boosted its position in Applied Optoelectronics by 1.4% in the first quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 18,072 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $1,529,000 after purchasing an additional 243 shares during the last quarter. Comerica Bank raised its stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 27.6% during the 4th quarter. Comerica Bank now owns 1,386 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $48,000 after purchasing an additional 300 shares during the period. AlphaQuest LLC grew its position in Applied Optoelectronics by 7.9% during the third quarter. AlphaQuest LLC now owns 7,503 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $195,000 after buying an additional 551 shares in the last quarter. Police & Firemen s Retirement System of New Jersey grew its position in Applied Optoelectronics by 3.6% during the fourth quarter. Police & Firemen s Retirement System of New Jersey now owns 16,073 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $560,000 after buying an additional 556 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Allworth Financial LP grew its position in Applied Optoelectronics by 1,923.7% during the fourth quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 769 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 731 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 61.70% of the company’s stock.

Key Stories Impacting Applied Optoelectronics

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

• Neutral Sentiment: CEO Chih-Hsiang (Thompson) Lin sold 58,000 shares, CFO Stefan J. Murry sold 33,000 shares, and other insiders also sold stock, but the company said the transactions were tied to tax withholding on equity award vesting.
• Neutral Sentiment: Applied Optoelectronics recently filed a prospectus supplement for a $600 million at-the-market stock offering, which raised investor concerns about potential dilution and added a near-term overhang.
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst commentary remains constructive overall, with recent buy ratings and a bullish thesis tied to strong hyperscaler demand for AI optical infrastructure and expanding demand for 800G and 1.6T optics.
• Negative Sentiment: The stock has also been hit by profit-taking after a sharp run-up, with market commentary noting that AAOI and other AI optics names are pulling back as investors lock in gains.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AAOI has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Raymond James Financial reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $160.00 target price on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research report on Friday, May 8th. B. Riley Financial upgraded Applied Optoelectronics from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $54.00 target price for the company in a research report on Friday, February 27th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research report on Wednesday, January 21st. Northland Securities reiterated a “market perform” rating and set a $55.00 target price on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research report on Friday, February 27th. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded Applied Optoelectronics from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Monday, April 13th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $79.80.

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.