Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) Hits New 12-Month High – Here’s Why

Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI)’s stock price hit a new 52-week high during trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $155.40 and last traded at $153.19, with a volume of 10901574 shares. The stock had previously closed at $150.60.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AAOI has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Applied Optoelectronics from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Monday. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research note on Wednesday, January 21st. Needham & Company LLC lifted their price objective on shares of Applied Optoelectronics from $43.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 27th. B. Riley Financial raised shares of Applied Optoelectronics from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $54.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 27th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “buy” rating and set a $50.00 price objective on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research note on Thursday, February 19th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $52.80.

Applied Optoelectronics Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a current ratio of 2.63 and a quick ratio of 1.91. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $84.69 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $50.37. The stock has a market cap of $11.52 billion, a P/E ratio of -235.68 and a beta of 3.23.

Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 26th. The semiconductor company reported ($0.01) earnings per share 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 firm had revenue of $134.27 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $131.56 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted ($0.02) earnings per share. The business’s 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. As a group, research analysts forecast that Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. will post -1.18 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Applied Optoelectronics

In other Applied Optoelectronics news, insider Shu-Hua (Joshua) Yeh sold 50,000 shares of Applied Optoelectronics stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $97.10, for a total value of $4,855,000.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 322,051 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $31,271,152.10. The trade was a 13.44% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Elizabeth G. Loboa sold 102,347 shares of Applied Optoelectronics stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $95.76, for a total transaction of $9,800,748.72. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 20,523 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,965,282.48. The trade was a 83.30% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 322,399 shares of company stock valued at $29,259,017. 4.50% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Applied Optoelectronics

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in AAOI. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 10.4% in the first quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 25,579 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $393,000 after purchasing an additional 2,415 shares in the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers bought a new stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics in the second quarter worth $377,000. New York State Common Retirement Fund lifted its position in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 36.0% in the second quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 17,000 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $437,000 after purchasing an additional 4,500 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 50.0% in the second quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 60,817 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $1,562,000 after purchasing an additional 20,261 shares in the last quarter. Finally, First Trust Advisors LP bought a new stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics in the second quarter worth $952,000. 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.