Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) Insider Shu-Hua (Joshua) Yeh Sells 39,154 Shares

Posted by Francis Steltz on May 20th, 2026

Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI – Get Free Report) insider Shu-Hua (Joshua) Yeh sold 39,154 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $173.26, for a total value of $6,783,822.04. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 462,430 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $80,120,621.80. The trade was a 7.81% decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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.

Shu-Hua (Joshua) Yeh also recently made the following trade(s):

On Monday, March 9th, Shu-Hua (Joshua) Yeh sold 50,000 shares of Applied Optoelectronics stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $97.10, for a total value of $4,855,000.00.

Applied Optoelectronics Stock Performance

NASDAQ AAOI opened at $171.33 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $13.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -259.59 and a beta of 3.76. Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. has a twelve month low of $15.06 and a twelve month high of $233.67. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $135.43 and a 200 day simple moving average of $73.08. The company has a quick ratio of 3.03, a current ratio of 3.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18.

Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI – Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 7th. The semiconductor company reported ($0.07) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.05) by ($0.02). The company 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 business’s revenue for the quarter was up 51.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned ($0.02) earnings per share. Applied Optoelectronics has set its Q2 2026 guidance at -0.030-0.030 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. will post 0.66 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have weighed in on AAOI shares. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Applied Optoelectronics from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Monday, April 13th. Raymond James Financial reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $160.00 target price on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research report on Wednesday, January 21st. Needham & Company LLC increased their target price on shares of Applied Optoelectronics from $43.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 27th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “buy” rating and set a $50.00 target price on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research report on Thursday, February 19th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Applied Optoelectronics has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $79.80.

Read Our Latest Analysis on Applied Optoelectronics

Institutional Trading of Applied Optoelectronics

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Allworth Financial LP grew its holdings in Applied Optoelectronics by 1,923.7% during the 4th quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 769 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $27,000 after acquiring an additional 731 shares during the period. Comerica Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $28,000. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. grew its position in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 166.7% during the 4th quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 1,200 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $42,000 after buying an additional 750 shares during the period. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics during the 4th quarter worth approximately $55,000. Finally, Headlands Technologies LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $57,000. 61.70% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Applied Optoelectronics News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Applied Optoelectronics this week:

Neutral Sentiment: CEO Chih-Hsiang (Thompson) Lin sold 58,000 shares, CFO Stefan J. Murry sold 33,000 shares, and other insiders also sold stock, but the company said the transactions were tied to tax withholding on equity award vesting.
Neutral Sentiment: Applied Optoelectronics recently filed a prospectus supplement for a $600 million at-the-market stock offering, which raised investor concerns about potential dilution and added a near-term overhang.
Neutral Sentiment: Analyst commentary remains constructive overall, with recent buy ratings and a bullish thesis tied to strong hyperscaler demand for AI optical infrastructure and expanding demand for 800G and 1.6T optics.
Negative Sentiment: The stock has also been hit by profit-taking after a sharp run-up, with market commentary noting that AAOI and other AI optics names are pulling back as investors lock in gains.

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.