Insider Selling: Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) Director Sells 21,000 Shares of Stock

Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI) Director Cynthia Delaney sold 21,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $98.02, for a total value of $2,058,420.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 116,222 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,392,080.44. This trade represents a 15.30% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website.

Applied Optoelectronics Price Performance

Applied Optoelectronics stock traded up $1.43 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $101.14. 10,170,880 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 6,613,469. The company has a current ratio of 2.63, a quick ratio of 1.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. has a twelve month low of $9.71 and a twelve month high of $110.00. The company has a market cap of $7.61 billion, a P/E ratio of -155.60 and a beta of 3.20. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $45.69 and a two-hundred day moving average of $34.27.

Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 26th. The semiconductor company reported ($0.01) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.12) by $0.11. The business had revenue of $134.27 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $131.56 million. Applied Optoelectronics had a negative net margin of 8.39% and a negative return on equity of 5.29%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 33.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted ($0.02) EPS. Applied Optoelectronics has set its Q1 2026 guidance at -0.090-0.000 EPS. Equities analysts expect that Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. will post -1.18 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Applied Optoelectronics

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics during the 4th quarter valued at about $1,375,000. Invesco Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 5,208.9% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,512,309 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $122,439,000 after buying an additional 3,446,150 shares in the last quarter. XTX Topco Ltd boosted its holdings in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 167.6% during the 4th quarter. XTX Topco Ltd now owns 24,771 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $864,000 after buying an additional 15,513 shares in the last quarter. SummitTX Capital L.P. acquired a new stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics during the 4th quarter worth approximately $254,000. Finally, Quadrature Capital Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics in the 4th quarter valued at $1,453,000. 61.70% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have issued reports on AAOI shares. Needham & Company LLC lifted their target price on Applied Optoelectronics from $43.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 27th. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $50.00 price objective on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research report on Thursday, February 19th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research note on Wednesday, January 21st. Northland Securities reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and set a $55.00 target price on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research note on Friday, February 27th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Applied Optoelectronics from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, February 28th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $52.80.

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.