Legal & General Group Plc Takes $9.42 Million Position in Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. $AAOI

Legal & General Group Plc purchased a new stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI) during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund purchased 63,555 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,416,000.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company purchased a new position in Applied Optoelectronics during the second quarter worth $3,228,000. Fiduciary Financial Advisors purchased a new stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics in the second quarter valued at $48,000. Algert Global LLC raised its stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 3.9% in the second quarter. Algert Global LLC now owns 110,843 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $16,422,000 after acquiring an additional 4,208 shares during the period. Gallo Partners LP purchased a new stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics in the second quarter valued at $715,000. Finally, Cibc World Market Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics in the 2nd quarter worth about $222,000. 61.70% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Applied Optoelectronics Stock Down 4.0%

Shares of AAOI opened at $103.39 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.74 billion, a P/E ratio of -132.55 and a beta of 3.79. Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. has a 12-month low of $18.50 and a 12-month high of $233.67. The company has a current ratio of 2.78, a quick ratio of 2.13 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $119.59 and a 200-day moving average price of $128.60.

Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 6th. The semiconductor company reported $0.06 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.02 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $191.92 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $190.48 million. Applied Optoelectronics had a negative net margin of 9.57% and a negative return on equity of 1.98%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 86.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted ($0.16) earnings per share. Applied Optoelectronics has set its Q3 2026 guidance at 0.110-0.260 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. will post 0.55 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AAOI has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Raymond James Financial reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $178.00 price target on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research note on Tuesday, August 11th. B. Riley Financial reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research report on Friday, August 7th. Needham & Company LLC decreased their price objective on shares of Applied Optoelectronics from $220.00 to $190.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, August 7th. Rosenblatt Securities restated a “buy” rating and set a $220.00 target price on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research report on Friday, August 7th. Finally, Weiss Ratings cut Applied Optoelectronics from a “sell (d-)” rating to a “sell (e+)” rating in a research note on Monday, August 17th. Three 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 data from MarketBeat.com, Applied Optoelectronics has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $139.40.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Applied Optoelectronics news, insider Hung-Lun (Fred) Chang sold 40,329 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $170.60, for a total value of $6,880,127.40. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 286,124 shares in the company, valued at $48,812,754.40. This represents a 12.35% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Shu-Hua (Joshua) Yeh sold 28,826 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $166.53, for a total transaction of $4,800,393.78. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 400,207 shares in the company, valued at approximately $66,646,471.71. This trade represents a 6.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Over the last three months, insiders sold 264,382 shares of company stock worth $44,224,007. 3.80% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.