Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) Shares Gap Up – What’s Next?

Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI)’s stock price gapped up prior to trading on Wednesday . The stock had previously closed at $162.88, but opened at $171.79. Applied Optoelectronics shares last traded at $181.3160, with a volume of 4,331,511 shares trading hands.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on AAOI shares. Needham & Company LLC raised their price objective on Applied Optoelectronics from $43.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 27th. Wall Street Zen lowered Applied Optoelectronics from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Monday, April 13th. Raymond James Financial reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $160.00 price objective on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $50.00 price objective on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research note on Thursday, February 19th. Finally, B. Riley Financial raised Applied Optoelectronics from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $54.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Friday, February 27th. Three equities 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 company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $79.80.

Applied Optoelectronics Price Performance

The company has a current ratio of 3.83, a quick ratio of 3.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. The stock has a market capitalization of $13.67 billion, a P/E ratio of -254.99 and a beta of 3.66. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $158.60 and a 200-day moving average of $89.28.

Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The semiconductor company reported ($0.07) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.05) by ($0.02). Applied Optoelectronics had a negative return on equity of 4.64% and a negative net margin of 8.55%.The business had revenue of $151.14 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $156.98 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted ($0.02) earnings per share. Applied Optoelectronics’s revenue was up 51.3% on a year-over-year basis. Applied Optoelectronics has set its Q2 2026 guidance at -0.030-0.030 EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. will post 0.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Applied Optoelectronics

In other Applied Optoelectronics news, insider Hung-Lun (Fred) Chang sold 36,400 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $100.25, for a total transaction of $3,649,100.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 233,618 shares in the company, valued at $23,420,204.50. This trade represents a 13.48% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Shu-Hua (Joshua) Yeh sold 39,154 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $173.26, for a total value of $6,783,822.04. Following the transaction, the insider owned 462,430 shares in the company, valued at $80,120,621.80. The trade was a 7.81% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Insiders sold a total of 331,233 shares of company stock worth $54,021,670 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 3.80% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in AAOI. Invesco Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 5,208.9% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,512,309 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $122,439,000 after acquiring an additional 3,446,150 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its position in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 2,188,630 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley boosted its position in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 157.1% in the 4th 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 boosted its position in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 106.2% in the 4th quarter. Hawk Ridge Capital Management LP now owns 1,700,900 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $59,293,000 after purchasing an additional 875,903 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Artemis Investment Management LLP acquired a new stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics in the 4th quarter worth $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.