Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) Releases Q4 Earnings Guidance

Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) issued an update on its fourth quarter earnings guidance on Thursday morning. The company provided earnings per share (EPS) guidance of ($0.04) to $0.04 for the period, compared to the consensus estimate of $0.06. The company issued revenue guidance of $94 million to $104 million, compared to the consensus revenue estimate of $98.56 million.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AAOI has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. B. Riley cut their price objective on shares of Applied Optoelectronics from $12.00 to $9.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. B. Riley Financial reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $9.00 price objective on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research report on Thursday, August 8th. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “buy” rating and set a $20.00 price objective on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. StockNews.com upgraded Applied Optoelectronics to a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Finally, Raymond James upgraded shares of Applied Optoelectronics from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $17.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $13.75.

Applied Optoelectronics Price Performance

NASDAQ AAOI traded up $1.69 during trading on Thursday, reaching $17.90. 7,065,479 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,475,635. Applied Optoelectronics has a 1-year low of $6.70 and a 1-year high of $24.75. The company has a market cap of $732.11 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -9.28 and a beta of 1.96. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $15.11 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $11.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a current ratio of 1.64.

Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The semiconductor company reported ($0.28) EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.29) by $0.01. The business had revenue of $43.27 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $44.14 million. Applied Optoelectronics had a negative return on equity of 19.82% and a negative net margin of 34.84%. Applied Optoelectronics’s quarterly revenue was up 4.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned ($0.31) EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Applied Optoelectronics will post -1.08 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider David C. Kuo sold 10,000 shares of Applied Optoelectronics stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $15.02, for a total transaction of $150,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 132,921 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,996,473.42. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 5.40% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

About Applied Optoelectronics

Applied Optoelectronics, Inc designs, manufactures, and sells fiber-optic networking products in the United States, Taiwan, and China. It offers optical modules, optical filters, lasers, laser components, subassemblies, transmitters and transceivers, turn-key equipment, headend, node, distribution equipment, and amplifiers.