Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) Trading Up 9.4% – Still a Buy?

Posted by Francis Steltz on Sep 10th, 2026

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

AAOI has been the subject of several research reports. B. Riley Financial restated a “neutral” rating on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research note on Friday, August 7th. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $220.00 target price on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a report on Friday, August 7th. Wall Street Zen raised Applied Optoelectronics from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 8th. Weiss Ratings cut shares of Applied Optoelectronics from a “sell (d-)” rating to a “sell (e+)” rating in a report on Monday, August 17th. Finally, 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. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $139.40.

Get Our Latest Stock Analysis on AAOI

Applied Optoelectronics Trading Down 3.2%

The firm has a market cap of $9.13 billion, a PE ratio of -138.37 and a beta of 3.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 2.78 and a quick ratio of 2.13. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $115.09 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $131.18.

Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI – Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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. Applied Optoelectronics had a negative net margin of 9.57% and a negative return on equity of 1.98%. The business had revenue of $191.92 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $190.48 million. During the same period last year, the company posted ($0.16) EPS. The company’s revenue was up 86.3% on a year-over-year basis. Applied Optoelectronics has set its Q3 2026 guidance at 0.110-0.260 EPS. Analysts forecast that Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. will post 0.55 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Hung-Lun Chang sold 40,329 shares of Applied Optoelectronics stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $170.60, for a total value of $6,880,127.40. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 286,124 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $48,812,754.40. The trade was a 12.35% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CFO Stefan J. Murry sold 33,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $166.53, for a total value of $5,495,490.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 384,576 shares in the company, valued at $64,043,441.28. This trade represents a 7.90% decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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 a total of 246,382 shares of company stock worth $40,687,227 in the last three months. 3.80% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Applied Optoelectronics

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AAOI. WINTON GROUP Ltd acquired a new position in Applied Optoelectronics during the second quarter worth approximately $1,813,000. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics during the 2nd quarter worth $58,000. Allworth Financial LP increased its holdings in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 68.8% during the 2nd quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 596 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $88,000 after buying an additional 243 shares during the last quarter. Arizona State Retirement System raised its position in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 14.3% in the 2nd quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 20,361 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $3,017,000 after buying an additional 2,544 shares during the period. Finally, Nykredit A S acquired a new position in Applied Optoelectronics in the second quarter valued at $362,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 61.70% of the company’s stock.

About Applied Optoelectronics

(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.