7,567 Shares in Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. $AAOI Bought by Jefferies Financial Group Inc.

Jefferies Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund purchased 7,567 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,121,000.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in AAOI. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 1.4% in the first quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 18,072 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $1,529,000 after buying an additional 243 shares during the period. Comerica Bank boosted its holdings in Applied Optoelectronics by 27.6% during the 4th quarter. Comerica Bank now owns 1,386 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $48,000 after acquiring an additional 300 shares during the period. EFG International AG purchased a new stake in Applied Optoelectronics during the 2nd quarter valued at about $44,000. Persistent Asset Partners Ltd bought a new position in Applied Optoelectronics during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $47,000. Finally, Fiduciary Financial Advisors bought a new position in Applied Optoelectronics during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $48,000. 61.70% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Applied Optoelectronics

In other news, insider Shu-Hua (Joshua) Yeh sold 28,826 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $166.53, for a total transaction of $4,800,393.78. Following the sale, the insider owned 400,207 shares in the company, valued at approximately $66,646,471.71. The trade was a 6.72% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, insider Hung-Lun (Fred) Chang sold 40,329 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $170.60, for a total transaction of $6,880,127.40. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 286,124 shares in the company, valued at $48,812,754.40. This represents a 12.35% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last three months, insiders have sold 272,629 shares of company stock valued at $45,881,654. Company insiders own 3.80% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have weighed in on AAOI. Needham & Company LLC lowered their price objective on Applied Optoelectronics from $220.00 to $190.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, August 7th. Raymond James Financial reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $178.00 price target on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research note on Tuesday, August 11th. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Applied Optoelectronics from a “sell (d-)” rating to a “sell (e+)” rating in a research report on Monday, August 17th. B. Riley Financial reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research report on Friday, August 7th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $220.00 target price on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research note 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 assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Applied Optoelectronics currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $139.40.

Applied Optoelectronics Stock Performance

AAOI opened at $106.23 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $8.98 billion, a PE ratio of -136.19 and a beta of 3.76. 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 business has a 50 day moving average of $121.74 and a 200-day moving average of $127.79. Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. has a 52 week low of $18.50 and a 52 week high of $233.67.

Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 6th. The semiconductor company reported $0.06 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.02 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $191.92 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $190.48 million. Applied Optoelectronics had a negative return on equity of 1.98% and a negative net margin of 9.57%.The firm’s revenue 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. Equities research analysts predict that Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. will post 0.55 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.