Applied Optoelectronics Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NASDAQ:AAOI)

Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI) saw unusually large options trading on Tuesday. Stock traders bought 32,682 call options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 73% compared to the typical daily volume of 18,856 call options.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AAOI has been the topic of a number of research reports. B. Riley Financial raised shares of Applied Optoelectronics from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $54.00 target price on the stock in a report on Friday, February 27th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research report on Wednesday, January 21st. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $50.00 price objective on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research note on Thursday, February 19th. Northland Securities reissued a “market perform” rating and issued a $55.00 target price on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a report on Friday, February 27th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded Applied Optoelectronics from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, February 28th. 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 company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $52.80.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Cynthia Delaney sold 21,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $98.02, for a total transaction of $2,058,420.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 116,222 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,392,080.44. This represents a 15.30% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider David C. Kuo sold 29,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $100.13, for a total value of $2,903,770.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 82,663 shares in the company, valued at $8,277,046.19. This trade represents a 25.97% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 326,333 shares of company stock worth $29,392,957. 4.50% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in AAOI. Allworth Financial LP boosted its holdings 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 valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 731 shares in the last quarter. Comerica Bank acquired a new stake in Applied Optoelectronics in the third quarter worth approximately $28,000. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. lifted its position in Applied Optoelectronics by 166.7% in the fourth quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 1,200 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $42,000 after purchasing an additional 750 shares during the period. Pinpoint Asset Management Singapore Pte. Ltd. bought a new position in Applied Optoelectronics during the 2nd quarter valued at $49,000. Finally, Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC acquired a new position in shares of Applied Optoelectronics during the 4th quarter valued at $55,000. 61.70% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Applied Optoelectronics Stock Performance

Shares of AAOI traded up $13.37 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $109.13. 9,664,558 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 8,106,860. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -168.16 and a beta of 3.19. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a current ratio of 2.63 and a quick ratio of 1.91. Applied Optoelectronics has a twelve month low of $9.71 and a twelve month high of $128.96. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $62.56 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $41.41.

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 the consensus estimate of ($0.12) by $0.11. The business had revenue of $134.27 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $131.56 million. Applied Optoelectronics had a negative net margin of 8.39% and a negative return on equity of 5.29%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 33.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted ($0.02) earnings per share. Applied Optoelectronics has set its Q1 2026 guidance at -0.090-0.000 EPS. Analysts predict that Applied Optoelectronics will post -1.18 earnings per share for the current year.

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.