William Blair Investment Management LLC Purchases New Shares in Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. $AAOI

William Blair Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI) during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm acquired 504,202 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock, valued at approximately $74,703,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 1.4% in the first quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 18,072 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $1,529,000 after purchasing an additional 243 shares during the last quarter. Comerica Bank lifted its position in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 27.6% during the fourth quarter. Comerica Bank now owns 1,386 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $48,000 after purchasing an additional 300 shares in the last quarter. Persistent Asset Partners Ltd purchased a new position in Applied Optoelectronics during the second quarter worth about $47,000. Tema ETFs LLC purchased a new position in Applied Optoelectronics during the second quarter worth about $62,000. Finally, Silverleafe Capital Partners LLC grew its position in Applied Optoelectronics by 13.4% in the 2nd quarter. Silverleafe Capital Partners LLC now owns 3,637 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $539,000 after purchasing an additional 429 shares in the last quarter. 61.70% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have commented on AAOI. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Applied Optoelectronics from a “sell (d-)” rating to a “sell (e+)” rating in a research note on Monday. Raymond James Financial restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $178.00 target price on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research note on Tuesday, August 11th. Needham & Company LLC reduced their target price on Applied Optoelectronics from $220.00 to $190.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, August 7th. Wall Street Zen raised Applied Optoelectronics from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, August 8th. Finally, B. Riley Financial reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research report on Friday, August 7th. Three 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, Applied Optoelectronics presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $139.40.

Applied Optoelectronics Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:AAOI opened at $124.82 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $10.56 billion, a P/E ratio of -160.03 and a beta of 3.76. The company’s 50-day moving average is $127.73 and its 200 day moving average is $124.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 2.13 and a current ratio of 2.78. Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $18.50 and a fifty-two week high of $233.67.

Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 6th. The semiconductor company reported $0.06 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.02 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $191.92 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $190.48 million. Applied Optoelectronics had a negative net margin of 9.57% and a negative return on equity of 1.98%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 86.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted ($0.16) earnings per share. Applied Optoelectronics has set its Q3 2026 guidance at 0.110-0.260 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. will post 0.55 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Hung-Lun (Fred) Chang sold 40,329 shares of Applied Optoelectronics stock in a transaction that occurred 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 owned 286,124 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $48,812,754.40. The trade was a 12.35% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Chih-Hsiang (Thompson) Lin sold 59,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $166.53, for a total value of $9,825,270.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 1,302,436 shares in the company, valued at approximately $216,894,667.08. The trade was a 4.33% decrease in their position. 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. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 329,204 shares of company stock worth $56,587,341. 3.80% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Applied Optoelectronics 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.