Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) Shares Gap Up – Here’s What Happened

Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI) shares gapped up prior to trading on Friday . The stock had previously closed at $39.57, but opened at $41.07. Applied Optoelectronics shares last traded at $45.6410, with a volume of 1,924,427 shares trading hands.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently weighed in on AAOI. Needham & Company LLC upped their price target on Applied Optoelectronics from $38.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 11th. B. Riley reaffirmed a “sell” rating and set a $15.00 target price on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research report on Monday, November 10th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a report on Wednesday, January 21st. Rosenblatt Securities restated a “buy” rating and set a $50.00 price target on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research note on Friday, December 19th. Finally, Northland Securities set a $45.00 price objective on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research note on Thursday, December 11th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $35.60.

Applied Optoelectronics Trading Up 12.8%

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23, a quick ratio of 1.63 and a current ratio of 2.31. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.05 billion, a P/E ratio of -13.92 and a beta of 3.26. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $33.29 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $29.13.

Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The semiconductor company reported ($0.09) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.10) by $0.01. Applied Optoelectronics had a negative net margin of 36.97% and a negative return on equity of 7.34%. The firm had revenue of $118.63 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $119.77 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted ($0.21) EPS. The business’s revenue was up 82.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Applied Optoelectronics has set its Q4 2025 guidance at -0.130–0.040 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. will post -1.18 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider David C. Kuo sold 12,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.15, for a total value of $501,875.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 130,948 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,257,562.20. This represents a 8.71% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Stefan J. Murry sold 3,000 shares of Applied Optoelectronics stock in a transaction on Monday, January 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $33.75, for a total value of $101,250.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer owned 283,971 shares in the company, valued at $9,584,021.25. This trade represents a 1.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 16,500 shares of company stock worth $638,126 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 4.50% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Applied Optoelectronics

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. CloudAlpha Capital Management Limited Hong Kong raised its position in Applied Optoelectronics by 410.7% in the second quarter. CloudAlpha Capital Management Limited Hong Kong now owns 1,408,983 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $36,197,000 after acquiring an additional 1,133,115 shares during the period. Chung Wu Investment Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $344,000. Sovereign Financial Group Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $287,000. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC bought a new stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $7,201,000. Finally, Squarepoint Ops LLC purchased a new position in Applied Optoelectronics in the second quarter valued at approximately $4,283,000. Institutional investors own 61.70% of the company’s stock.

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.