Insider Selling: Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) Insider Sells $5,662,020.00 in Stock

Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI) insider Hung-Lun (Fred) Chang sold 34,000 shares of the 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 $5,662,020.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 326,453 shares in the company, valued at approximately $54,364,218.09. This trade represents a 9.43% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards.

Hung-Lun (Fred) Chang also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Wednesday, June 17th, Hung-Lun (Fred) Chang sold 40,329 shares of Applied Optoelectronics stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $170.60, for a total transaction of $6,880,127.40.
• On Friday, June 5th, Hung-Lun (Fred) Chang sold 4,000 shares of Applied Optoelectronics stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $200.07, for a total value of $800,280.00.
• On Tuesday, May 19th, Hung-Lun (Fred) Chang sold 33,630 shares of Applied Optoelectronics stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $173.26, for a total value of $5,826,733.80.

Applied Optoelectronics Stock Performance

AAOI opened at $161.85 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $168.99 and a 200 day moving average price of $96.64. Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. has a 1 year low of $18.50 and a 1 year high of $233.67. The stock has a market cap of $12.99 billion, a P/E ratio of -245.23 and a beta of 3.66. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a current ratio of 3.83 and a quick ratio of 3.03.

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 analysts’ expectations of $156.98 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted ($0.02) EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 51.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Applied Optoelectronics has set its Q2 2026 guidance at -0.030-0.030 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. will post 0.6 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Applied Optoelectronics

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AAOI. Allworth Financial LP grew 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 worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 731 shares during the period. Comerica Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics during the 3rd quarter worth about $28,000. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. raised its holdings in Applied Optoelectronics by 166.7% in the 4th 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. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC purchased a new stake in Applied Optoelectronics in the 4th quarter valued at about $55,000. Finally, Headlands Technologies LLC acquired a new position in Applied Optoelectronics in the second quarter valued at about $57,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 61.70% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently commented on AAOI. Raymond James Financial reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a report on Wednesday, June 10th. Rosenblatt Securities restated a “buy” rating and issued a $50.00 target price on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a report on Thursday, February 19th. Wall Street Zen downgraded Applied Optoelectronics from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Monday, April 13th. B. Riley Financial upgraded Applied Optoelectronics from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $54.00 price target on the stock in a report on Friday, February 27th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC boosted their price target 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. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $79.80.

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.