Richard Black Sells 3,231 Shares of Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) Stock

Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI) Director Richard Black sold 3,231 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $95.00, for a total value of $306,945.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 164,363 shares in the company, valued at $15,614,485. This trade represents a 1.93% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website.

Applied Optoelectronics Stock Down 5.4%

NASDAQ:AAOI opened at $95.67 on Friday. 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’s 50-day moving average price is $48.07 and its 200-day moving average price is $35.22. The company has a market capitalization of $7.19 billion, a PE ratio of -147.18 and a beta of 3.20. Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. has a 1-year low of $9.71 and a 1-year high of $114.63.

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, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.12) by $0.11. The company had revenue of $134.27 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $131.56 million. Applied Optoelectronics had a negative return on equity of 5.29% and a negative net margin of 8.39%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 33.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned ($0.02) EPS. Applied Optoelectronics has set its Q1 2026 guidance at -0.090-0.000 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. will post -1.18 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Applied Optoelectronics

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Invesco Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 5,208.9% in 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 period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake in Applied Optoelectronics by 5,321.6% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 2,229,757 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $77,730,000 after buying an additional 2,188,630 shares in the last quarter. CloudAlpha Capital Management Limited Hong Kong increased its stake in Applied Optoelectronics by 410.7% in the 2nd quarter. CloudAlpha Capital Management Limited Hong Kong now owns 1,408,983 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $36,197,000 after buying an additional 1,133,115 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley raised its holdings in Applied Optoelectronics by 157.1% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 1,699,855 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $59,257,000 after acquiring an additional 1,038,775 shares during the period. Finally, Hawk Ridge Capital Management LP raised its holdings in Applied Optoelectronics by 106.2% during the fourth quarter. Hawk Ridge Capital Management LP now owns 1,700,900 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $59,293,000 after acquiring an additional 875,903 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 61.70% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have issued reports on AAOI. Needham & Company LLC raised their target price on Applied Optoelectronics from $43.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 27th. B. Riley Financial upgraded shares of Applied Optoelectronics from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $54.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 27th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Applied Optoelectronics from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, February 28th. Northland Securities restated a “market perform” rating and set a $55.00 target price on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research report on Friday, February 27th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $50.00 price target on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research report on Thursday, February 19th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Applied Optoelectronics has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $52.80.

Key Headlines Impacting Applied Optoelectronics

Here are the key news stories impacting Applied Optoelectronics this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Large institutional accumulation: multiple funds (Invesco, Price T. Rowe, Morgan Stanley and others) disclosed huge net purchases in Q4, signaling conviction from big investors and supplying upward pressure on the stock. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Unusual options flow: traders bought ~32,868 call options (≈133% above average daily call volume), which often accompanies bets on further upside and can amplify short‑term price moves. (Source: trading tape data)
• Positive Sentiment: Recent quarterly beat: AAOI reported revenue and a slight EPS beat (Feb 26) with strong year‑over‑year revenue growth, which supports the bullish narrative despite conservative near‑term EPS guidance. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Market commentary on valuation vs. AI hype: a Yahoo Finance piece questions whether current pricing fully reflects AI‑infrastructure expectations — useful context but does not provide a clear directional catalyst. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Director Richard Black sold 3,231 shares (~$306.9k at ~$95/share), a small (1.93%) trim of his holding; insider selling can be perceived as profit‑taking. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Director Cynthia Delaney sold 21,000 shares (~$2.06M at ~$98.02/share), a 15.3% reduction of her stake — a larger signal of insider exit. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Director Elizabeth Loboa sold 102,347 shares (~$9.8M at ~$95.76/share), an 83.3% cut in her holding — the most significant insider sale and a potential near‑term headwind for sentiment. Read More.

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.