Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) Shares Gap Up Following Analyst Upgrade

Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI)’s share price gapped up prior to trading on Monday after Wall Street Zen upgraded the stock from a sell rating to a hold rating. The stock had previously closed at $84.23, but opened at $107.55. Applied Optoelectronics shares last traded at $96.2680, with a volume of 10,598,066 shares trading hands.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently weighed in on AAOI. Northland Securities restated a “market perform” rating and set a $55.00 price objective on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research note on Friday. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research report on Wednesday, January 21st. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $50.00 price target on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a report on Thursday, February 19th. B. Riley Financial upgraded Applied Optoelectronics from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $15.00 to $54.00 in a research report on Friday. Finally, Needham & Company LLC raised their price target on shares of Applied Optoelectronics from $43.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. 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 company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Applied Optoelectronics currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $52.80.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider David C. Kuo sold 17,467 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.17, for a total transaction of $876,319.39. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 111,663 shares in the company, valued at $5,602,132.71. This trade represents a 13.53% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Stefan J. Murry sold 11,693 shares of Applied Optoelectronics stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.25, for a total value of $587,573.25. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 290,050 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,575,012.50. This represents a 3.88% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last three months, insiders sold 66,520 shares of company stock worth $3,080,367. 4.50% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Allworth Financial LP boosted its holdings in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 1,923.7% during the 4th quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 769 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 731 shares in the last quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 497.5% during the second quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 962 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 801 shares in the last quarter. Comerica Bank bought a new stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics during the third quarter worth about $28,000. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. increased its stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 166.7% in the fourth quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 1,200 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $42,000 after buying an additional 750 shares during the period. Finally, Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC bought a new position in Applied Optoelectronics in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $55,000. 61.70% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Applied Optoelectronics Trading Up 13.9%

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 firm has a market capitalization of $7.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -146.43 and a beta of 3.19. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $42.16 and its 200 day moving average is $32.72.

Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) last released its earnings results 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. Applied Optoelectronics had a negative net margin of 8.39% and a negative return on equity of 5.29%. The business had revenue of $134.27 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $131.56 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted ($0.02) EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 33.9% compared to the same quarter last year. 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 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.