Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) Trading 7.3% Higher – Still a Buy?

Posted by Geri Gentry on Aug 12th, 2026

Shares of Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI – Get Free Report) shot up 7.3% during mid-day trading on Monday . The stock traded as high as $148.53 and last traded at $145.5630. Approximately 5,050,581 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 52% from the average daily volume of 10,592,223 shares. The stock had previously closed at $135.63.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AAOI has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Needham & Company LLC cut their price target on shares of Applied Optoelectronics from $220.00 to $190.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday. Wall Street Zen upgraded Applied Optoelectronics from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday. B. Riley Financial restated a “neutral” rating on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a report on Friday. Raymond James Financial restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $178.00 target price on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a report on Tuesday, July 7th. 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 stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $139.40.

View Our Latest Research Report on Applied Optoelectronics

Applied Optoelectronics Stock Up 1.1%

The firm has a market capitalization of $11.36 billion, a P/E ratio of -172.22 and a beta of 3.76. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 2.13 and a current ratio of 2.78. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $134.92 and a 200-day moving average of $120.05.

Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI – Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, August 6th. The semiconductor company reported $0.06 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.02 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $191.92 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $190.48 million. Applied Optoelectronics had a negative net margin of 9.57% and a negative return on equity of 1.98%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 86.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned ($0.16) earnings per share. Applied Optoelectronics has set its Q3 2026 guidance at 0.110-0.260 EPS. Research analysts predict that Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. will post 0.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Stefan J. Murry sold 33,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $173.26, for a total value of $5,717,580.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 451,906 shares in the company, valued at approximately $78,297,233.56. This trade represents a 6.81% decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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, CEO Chih-Hsiang (Thompson) Lin sold 59,000 shares of the business’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 transaction of $9,825,270.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,302,436 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $216,894,667.08. This represents 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. Insiders sold 506,215 shares of company stock worth $87,409,447 in the last three months. Insiders own 3.80% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in AAOI. Allworth Financial LP raised its holdings in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 1,923.7% in the 4th quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 769 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 731 shares in the last quarter. Comerica Bank bought a new position in shares of Applied Optoelectronics in the third quarter worth approximately $28,000. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. raised its stake in Applied Optoelectronics by 166.7% in the fourth quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 1,200 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $42,000 after purchasing an additional 750 shares in the last quarter. Persistent Asset Partners Ltd purchased a new stake in Applied Optoelectronics in the second quarter valued at approximately $47,000. Finally, Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC bought a new stake in Applied Optoelectronics during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $55,000. Institutional investors 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.