Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) Trading Down 7.9% Following Insider Selling

Posted by Geri Gentry on Jun 18th, 2026

Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI – Get Free Report) dropped 7.9% during trading on Tuesday following insider selling activity. The company traded as low as $177.26 and last traded at $176.4730. Approximately 3,796,050 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 64% from the average daily volume of 10,416,618 shares. The stock had previously closed at $191.55.

Specifically, insider Hung-Lun (Fred) Chang sold 34,000 shares of Applied Optoelectronics stock in a transaction on Friday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $166.53, for a total value of $5,662,020.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 326,453 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $54,364,218.09. This trade represents a 9.43% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, insider David C. Kuo sold 29,227 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $166.53, for a total value of $4,867,172.31. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 149,078 shares in the company, valued at $24,825,959.34. The trade was a 16.39% decrease in their position. 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. In other news, CEO Chih-Hsiang (Thompson) Lin sold 59,000 shares of Applied Optoelectronics stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the chief executive officer owned 1,302,436 shares in the company, valued at $216,894,667.08. The trade was a 4.33% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AAOI has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Raymond James Financial reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research report on Wednesday, June 10th. Northland Securities reissued a “market perform” rating and set a $55.00 price objective on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research report on Friday, February 27th. B. Riley Financial raised Applied Optoelectronics from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $54.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Friday, February 27th. Wall Street Zen downgraded Applied Optoelectronics from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Monday, April 13th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC boosted their price objective on Applied Optoelectronics from $43.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 27th. Three 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 MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $79.80.

View Our Latest Analysis on AAOI

Applied Optoelectronics Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a current ratio of 3.83 and a quick ratio of 3.03. The company’s 50 day moving average is $168.10 and its 200 day moving average is $95.69. The stock has a market cap of $13.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -253.55 and a beta of 3.66.

Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI – Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The semiconductor company reported ($0.07) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.05) by ($0.02). The firm had revenue of $151.14 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $156.98 million. Applied Optoelectronics had a negative net margin of 8.55% and a negative return on equity of 4.64%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 51.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted ($0.02) EPS. Applied Optoelectronics has set its Q2 2026 guidance at -0.030-0.030 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. will post 0.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Applied Optoelectronics

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Cinctive Capital Management LP acquired a new stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics during the third quarter valued at $800,000. Diker Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics during the third quarter valued at $519,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 13.6% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,624,570 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $119,915,000 after acquiring an additional 551,910 shares during the last quarter. 1492 Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics during the fourth quarter valued at $7,529,000. Finally, FourThought Financial Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics during the fourth quarter valued at $367,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 61.70% of the company’s stock.

Applied Optoelectronics Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

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.