Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) Sees Strong Trading Volume – Time to Buy?

Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI) saw an uptick in trading volume on Friday . 5,827,481 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 20% from the previous session’s volume of 7,307,755 shares.The stock last traded at $102.2850 and had previously closed at $106.19.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Applied Optoelectronics Stock Down 9.6%

The firm has a market cap of $7.22 billion, a P/E ratio of -147.75 and a beta of 3.20. The company has a current ratio of 2.63, a quick ratio of 1.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $54.51 and a 200-day moving average price of $37.80.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director William H. Yeh sold 15,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $105.76, for a total value of $1,586,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 238,819 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $25,257,497.44. This represents a 5.91% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CFO Stefan J. Murry sold 4,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $112.76, for a total transaction of $451,040.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 280,070 shares in the company, valued at approximately $31,580,693.20. This represents a 1.41% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 273,433 shares of company stock worth $23,341,962. 4.50% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Invesco Ltd. boosted its position in Applied Optoelectronics by 5,208.9% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,512,309 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $122,439,000 after purchasing an additional 3,446,150 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its holdings in Applied Optoelectronics by 5,321.6% in the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 2,229,757 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $77,730,000 after purchasing an additional 2,188,630 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley raised its holdings in Applied Optoelectronics by 157.1% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 1,699,855 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $59,257,000 after purchasing an additional 1,038,775 shares in the last quarter. Hawk Ridge Capital Management LP lifted its position in shares of 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 buying an additional 875,903 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Artemis Investment Management LLP purchased a new stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics during the fourth quarter valued at about $26,923,000. 61.70% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.