Virtu Financial LLC Decreases Position in Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. $AAOI

Virtu Financial LLC lowered its stake in Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI) by 18.2% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 52,412 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after selling 11,660 shares during the quarter. Virtu Financial LLC’s holdings in Applied Optoelectronics were worth $1,827,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also modified their holdings of AAOI. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 7.7% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,982,660 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $173,696,000 after buying an additional 358,090 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. boosted its holdings in Applied Optoelectronics by 5,208.9% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,512,309 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $122,439,000 after acquiring an additional 3,446,150 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its holdings in 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 acquiring an additional 2,188,630 shares during the period. Hawk Ridge Capital Management LP grew its position in Applied Optoelectronics by 106.2% in the fourth quarter. Hawk Ridge Capital Management LP now owns 1,700,900 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $59,293,000 after acquiring an additional 875,903 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Morgan Stanley grew its position in Applied Optoelectronics by 157.1% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 1,699,855 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $59,257,000 after acquiring an additional 1,038,775 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 61.70% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on AAOI shares. Northland Securities reiterated a “market perform” rating and set a $55.00 price objective on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research note on Friday, February 27th. Needham & Company LLC upped their target price on shares of 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 shares of Applied Optoelectronics from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Monday, April 13th. Raymond James Financial reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research note on Wednesday, June 10th. Finally, B. Riley Financial upgraded shares of Applied Optoelectronics from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $54.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Friday, February 27th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $79.80.

Applied Optoelectronics Stock Performance

Shares of AAOI opened at $161.85 on Friday. Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. has a one year low of $18.50 and a one year high of $233.67. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $169.57 and a 200 day moving average price of $97.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a quick ratio of 3.03 and a current ratio of 3.83. The company has a market capitalization of $12.99 billion, a P/E ratio of -245.23 and a beta of 3.66.

Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 7th. The semiconductor company reported ($0.07) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate 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 firm earned ($0.02) earnings per share. Applied Optoelectronics’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. Sell-side analysts forecast that Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. will post 0.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Applied Optoelectronics

In related news, insider Hung-Lun (Fred) Chang sold 40,329 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the insider directly owned 286,124 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $48,812,754.40. This represents a 12.35% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Shu-Hua (Joshua) Yeh sold 6,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $171.89, for a total transaction of $1,031,340.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 394,207 shares in the company, valued at $67,760,241.23. This trade represents a 1.50% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last three months, insiders have sold 500,215 shares of company stock valued at $86,716,414. Corporate insiders own 3.80% of the company’s stock.

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.