Next Century Growth Investors LLC Makes New Investment in Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. $AAOI

Next Century Growth Investors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund acquired 465,288 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock, valued at approximately $16,220,000. Next Century Growth Investors LLC owned about 0.68% of Applied Optoelectronics as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Kennedy Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Applied Optoelectronics during the fourth quarter worth $15,586,000. Barclays PLC lifted its stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 4.4% in the 4th quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 235,704 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $8,217,000 after purchasing an additional 9,930 shares during the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company lifted its stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 11.5% in the 4th quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 30,977 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $1,080,000 after purchasing an additional 3,194 shares during the last quarter. Soros Fund Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Applied Optoelectronics in the 4th quarter valued at $404,000. Finally, Stifel Financial Corp lifted its stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 37.9% in the 4th quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 20,267 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $707,000 after purchasing an additional 5,572 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 61.70% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Shu-Hua (Joshua) Yeh sold 39,154 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 $6,783,822.04. Following the transaction, the insider owned 462,430 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $80,120,621.80. This represents a 7.81% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, 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 value of $10,049,080.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,255,693 shares in the company, valued at approximately $390,821,369.18. The trade was a 2.51% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Insiders have sold 335,233 shares of company stock worth $54,707,470 in the last quarter. Insiders own 3.80% of the company’s stock.

Applied Optoelectronics Stock Performance

Shares of Applied Optoelectronics stock opened at $169.05 on Friday. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $163.82 and its 200-day simple moving average is $91.99. Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. has a 52 week low of $15.29 and a 52 week high of $233.67. The company has a quick ratio of 3.03, a current ratio of 3.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. The firm has a market cap of $13.56 billion, a PE ratio of -256.14 and a beta of 3.66.

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AAOI has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $50.00 price target on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research note on Thursday, February 19th. Needham & Company LLC upped their price target on Applied Optoelectronics from $43.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 27th. Wall Street Zen lowered Applied Optoelectronics from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Monday, April 13th. Northland Securities reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and issued a $55.00 price target on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research note on Friday, February 27th. Finally, Raymond James Financial reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research note on Wednesday. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $79.80.

Applied Optoelectronics 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.