Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) Shares Gap Up – Should You Buy?

Shares of Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI) gapped up before the market opened on Monday . The stock had previously closed at $103.91, but opened at $110.05. Applied Optoelectronics shares last traded at $106.2350, with a volume of 6,471,440 shares traded.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on AAOI shares. B. Riley Financial raised Applied Optoelectronics from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $54.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Friday, February 27th. Wall Street Zen raised Applied Optoelectronics from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Sunday. Needham & Company LLC raised their price objective on Applied Optoelectronics from $43.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 27th. Northland Securities reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and issued a $55.00 price objective on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research note on Friday, February 27th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research note on Wednesday, January 21st. 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 MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $52.80.

Applied Optoelectronics Stock Up 9.5%

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 firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $76.75 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $47.15. The company has a market cap of $8.85 billion, a PE ratio of -180.98 and a beta of 3.23.

Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) last released its quarterly earnings results 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 company had revenue of $134.27 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $131.56 million. Applied Optoelectronics had a negative return on equity of 5.29% and a negative net margin of 8.39%.Applied Optoelectronics’s revenue was up 33.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted ($0.02) earnings per share. Applied Optoelectronics has set its Q1 2026 guidance at -0.090-0.000 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. will post -1.18 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Applied Optoelectronics

In other news, insider Hung-Lun (Fred) Chang sold 36,400 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $100.25, for a total transaction of $3,649,100.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 233,618 shares in the company, valued at $23,420,204.50. This trade represents a 13.48% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider Shu-Hua (Joshua) Yeh sold 50,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $97.10, for a total value of $4,855,000.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 322,051 shares in the company, valued at $31,271,152.10. This trade represents a 13.44% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 326,333 shares of company stock valued at $29,392,957 in the last ninety days. 4.50% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Applied Optoelectronics

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics during the fourth quarter worth $1,375,000. Invesco Ltd. boosted its holdings 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 worth $122,439,000 after purchasing an additional 3,446,150 shares during the last quarter. XTX Topco Ltd boosted its holdings in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 167.6% during the fourth quarter. XTX Topco Ltd now owns 24,771 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $864,000 after purchasing an additional 15,513 shares during the last quarter. SummitTX Capital L.P. acquired a new stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics during the fourth quarter worth $254,000. Finally, Quadrature Capital Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics during the fourth quarter worth $1,453,000. 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.