Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) Stock Price Up 9.4% – Here’s What Happened

Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI)’s share price was up 9.4% during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $115.05 and last traded at $115.3990. 3,584,316 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 66% from the average daily volume of 10,483,783 shares. The stock had previously closed at $105.53.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on AAOI. B. Riley Financial reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research note on Friday, August 7th. Weiss Ratings cut shares of Applied Optoelectronics from a “sell (d-)” rating to a “sell (e+)” rating in a research report on Monday, August 17th. Needham & Company LLC decreased their price target on Applied Optoelectronics from $220.00 to $190.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, August 7th. Raymond James Financial reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $178.00 price objective on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research report on Tuesday, August 11th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised Applied Optoelectronics from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 8th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $139.40.

Applied Optoelectronics Trading Up 9.2%

The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $116.45 and its 200 day moving average price is $130.27. The company has a market cap of $9.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -147.59 and a beta of 3.79. The company has a current ratio of 2.78, a quick ratio of 2.13 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12.

Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) last released its earnings results on Thursday, August 6th. The semiconductor company reported $0.06 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.02 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $191.92 million for 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%. Applied Optoelectronics’s quarterly revenue was up 86.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned ($0.16) EPS. Applied Optoelectronics has set its Q3 2026 guidance at 0.110-0.260 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. will post 0.55 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Applied Optoelectronics

In other news, insider Shu-Hua Yeh sold 28,826 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $166.53, for a total transaction of $4,800,393.78. Following the transaction, the insider owned 400,207 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $66,646,471.71. This represents a 6.72% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, CFO Stefan Murry sold 33,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $166.53, for a total value of $5,495,490.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 384,576 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $64,043,441.28. The trade was a 7.90% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 250,382 shares of company stock worth $41,373,027. 3.80% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Applied Optoelectronics

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Amundi acquired a new stake in Applied Optoelectronics in the 2nd quarter valued at $965,000. HighTower Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Applied Optoelectronics in the second quarter valued at $287,000. VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al acquired a new position in shares of Applied Optoelectronics during the second quarter valued at about $1,245,000. California State Teachers Retirement System increased its position in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 17,896.9% during the second quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 12,681,311 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $1,878,863,000 after acquiring an additional 12,610,847 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Greenland Capital Management LP acquired a new stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics in the 2nd quarter worth about $274,000. 61.70% of the stock is 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.