Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) Stock Price Down 5.5% – Should You Sell?

Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI) traded down 5.5% during mid-day trading on Thursday . The stock traded as low as $170.21 and last traded at $170.0090. 5,695,520 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 42% from the average session volume of 9,847,798 shares. The stock had previously closed at $179.83.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Raymond James Financial reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $160.00 target price on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Northland Securities reissued a “market perform” rating and issued a $55.00 target price on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research report on Friday, February 27th. Needham & Company LLC increased 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. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Applied Optoelectronics from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Monday, April 13th. Finally, B. Riley Financial upgraded 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. Three 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $79.80.

Applied Optoelectronics Price Performance

The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $143.58 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $79.20. The company has a market capitalization of $13.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -258.59 and a beta of 3.76. The company has a current ratio of 3.83, a quick ratio of 3.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18.

Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The semiconductor company reported ($0.07) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.05) by ($0.02). The company had revenue of $151.14 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $156.98 million. Applied Optoelectronics had a negative return on equity of 4.64% and a negative net margin of 8.55%.Applied Optoelectronics’s revenue for the quarter was up 51.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted ($0.02) earnings per share. Applied Optoelectronics has set its Q2 2026 guidance at -0.030-0.030 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. will post 0.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Applied Optoelectronics

In other Applied Optoelectronics news, CEO Chih-Hsiang (Thompson) Lin sold 58,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $173.26, for a total transaction of $10,049,080.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,255,693 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $390,821,369.18. This trade represents a 2.51% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, CFO Stefan J. Murry sold 33,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $173.26, for a total value of $5,717,580.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 451,906 shares in the company, valued at $78,297,233.56. This represents a 6.81% 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 459,324 shares of company stock worth $59,068,951 in the last three months. Company insiders own 3.80% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Applied Optoelectronics

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 7.7% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,982,660 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $173,696,000 after acquiring an additional 358,090 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. grew its position in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 5,208.9% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,512,309 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $122,439,000 after acquiring an additional 3,446,150 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew 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 acquiring an additional 2,188,630 shares during the period. Hawk Ridge Capital Management LP grew 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 acquiring an additional 875,903 shares during the period. Finally, Morgan Stanley grew 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 acquiring an additional 1,038,775 shares during the period. 61.70% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Applied Optoelectronics

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.