Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) Stock Price Down 6.2% After Insider Selling

Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI) fell 6.2% on Wednesday after an insider sold shares in the company. The company traded as low as $135.10 and last traded at $137.3130. 2,311,388 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 75% from the average session volume of 9,231,631 shares. The stock had previously closed at $146.39.

Specifically, CFO Stefan J. Murry sold 4,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $136.50, for a total transaction of $546,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 276,070 shares in the company, valued at approximately $37,683,555. This represents a 1.43% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AAOI has been the topic of several recent research reports. Northland Securities reissued a “market perform” rating and set a $55.00 price objective on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a report on Friday, February 27th. B. Riley Financial upgraded Applied Optoelectronics from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $54.00 target price for the company in a research report on Friday, February 27th. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $50.00 price target on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a report on Thursday, February 19th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Applied Optoelectronics from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Monday. Finally, Needham & Company LLC increased their price objective on Applied Optoelectronics from $43.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 27th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Applied Optoelectronics has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $52.80.

Applied Optoelectronics Trading Down 5.7%

The stock has a market cap of $10.38 billion, a P/E ratio of -210.08 and a beta of 3.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a quick ratio of 1.91 and a current ratio of 2.63. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $86.70 and its 200-day simple moving average is $51.22.

Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 26th. The semiconductor company reported ($0.01) EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.12) by $0.11. Applied Optoelectronics had a negative net margin of 8.39% and a negative return on equity of 5.29%. The company had revenue of $134.27 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $131.56 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted ($0.02) EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 33.9% on a year-over-year basis. Applied Optoelectronics has set its Q1 2026 guidance at -0.090-0.000 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. will post -1.18 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Applied Optoelectronics

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Invesco Ltd. raised its position in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 5,208.9% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,512,309 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $122,439,000 after acquiring an additional 3,446,150 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its position in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 5,321.6% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 2,229,757 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $77,730,000 after purchasing an additional 2,188,630 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley boosted its position in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 157.1% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 1,699,855 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $59,257,000 after purchasing an additional 1,038,775 shares in the last quarter. Hawk Ridge Capital Management LP boosted its position in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 106.2% during the 4th quarter. Hawk Ridge Capital Management LP now owns 1,700,900 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $59,293,000 after purchasing an additional 875,903 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Artemis Investment Management LLP acquired a new stake in Applied Optoelectronics during the fourth quarter worth approximately $26,923,000. 61.70% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Applied Optoelectronics Company 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.