Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) Shares Down 7.6% – Should You Sell?

Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI)’s share price traded down 7.6% during mid-day trading on Monday . The company traded as low as $110.09 and last traded at $110.8070. Approximately 1,186,543 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 89% from the average daily volume of 10,513,644 shares. The stock had previously closed at $119.92.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on AAOI shares. Wall Street Zen downgraded Applied Optoelectronics from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Monday, April 13th. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $220.00 price target on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research note on Monday, June 22nd. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a report on Tuesday, July 7th. Finally, Raymond James Financial reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research note on Wednesday, June 10th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $113.80.

Applied Optoelectronics Stock Performance

The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $165.01 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $108.59. 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 $9.02 billion, a PE ratio of -170.46 and a beta of 3.69.

Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) last released its 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). The business had revenue of $151.14 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $156.98 million. Applied Optoelectronics had a negative net margin of 8.55% and a negative return on equity of 4.64%. Applied Optoelectronics’s revenue for the quarter was up 51.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned ($0.02) EPS. Applied Optoelectronics has set its Q2 2026 guidance at -0.030-0.030 EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. will post 0.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other Applied Optoelectronics news, CEO Chih-Hsiang (Thompson) Lin sold 59,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $166.53, for a total transaction of $9,825,270.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,302,436 shares in the company, valued at approximately $216,894,667.08. This trade represents a 4.33% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, insider Shu-Hua (Joshua) Yeh sold 39,154 shares of Applied Optoelectronics stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $173.26, for a total value of $6,783,822.04. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 462,430 shares in the company, valued at approximately $80,120,621.80. This trade represents a 7.81% decrease in their position. 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. Insiders sold 496,215 shares of company stock valued at $86,170,414 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 3.80% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Applied Optoelectronics

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in AAOI. Tema ETFs LLC acquired a new position in Applied Optoelectronics in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $62,000. Allworth Financial LP boosted its stake 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 buying an additional 731 shares during the period. NFSG Corp acquired a new stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics during the 1st quarter valued at $85,000. Comerica Bank purchased a new position in shares of Applied Optoelectronics during the 3rd quarter valued at $28,000. Finally, Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. grew its holdings in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 166.7% during the 4th quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 1,200 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $42,000 after acquiring an additional 750 shares in the last quarter. 61.70% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Applied Optoelectronics

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.