Man Group plc Invests $2.01 Million in Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. $AAOI

Man Group plc bought a new stake in Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI) during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 13,570 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,011,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Jupiter Topco LLC acquired a new stake in Applied Optoelectronics during the 2nd quarter worth about $4,874,000. Hsbc Holdings PLC acquired a new position in shares of Applied Optoelectronics in the second quarter valued at about $4,302,000. EFG International AG purchased a new position in shares of Applied Optoelectronics in the second quarter worth about $44,000. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board acquired a new stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics during the second quarter worth about $27,928,000. Finally, Nicholas Investment Partners LP acquired a new stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics during the second quarter worth about $6,676,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 61.70% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently weighed in on AAOI. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Applied Optoelectronics from a “sell (d-)” rating to a “sell (e+)” rating in a report on Monday, August 17th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Applied Optoelectronics from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 8th. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $220.00 price objective on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a report on Friday, August 7th. Raymond James Financial reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $178.00 price objective on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research note on Tuesday, August 11th. Finally, B. Riley Financial reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a report on Friday, August 7th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Applied Optoelectronics currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $139.40.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Hung-Lun (Fred) Chang sold 40,329 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $170.60, for a total transaction of $6,880,127.40. Following the sale, the insider owned 286,124 shares in the company, valued at approximately $48,812,754.40. This trade represents a 12.35% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider David C. Kuo sold 29,227 shares of Applied Optoelectronics stock in a transaction on Friday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $166.53, for a total transaction of $4,867,172.31. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 149,078 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $24,825,959.34. The trade was a 16.39% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Insiders sold a total of 264,382 shares of company stock valued at $44,224,007 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 3.80% of the company’s stock.

Applied Optoelectronics Stock Down 4.0%

Applied Optoelectronics stock opened at $103.39 on Wednesday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $119.59 and its 200 day moving average price is $128.60. The company has a quick ratio of 2.13, a current ratio of 2.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. The firm has a market cap of $8.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -132.55 and a beta of 3.79. Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. has a 52 week low of $18.50 and a 52 week high of $233.67.

Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 6th. The semiconductor company reported $0.06 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.02 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $191.92 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $190.48 million. Applied Optoelectronics had a negative return on equity of 1.98% and a negative net margin of 9.57%.Applied Optoelectronics’s revenue for the quarter was up 86.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted ($0.16) earnings per share. Applied Optoelectronics has set its Q3 2026 guidance at 0.110-0.260 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. will post 0.55 earnings per share for the current year.

Applied Optoelectronics 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.