Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) Stock Price Down 6.1% – Here’s What Happened

Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI)’s stock price fell 6.1% during trading on Thursday . The company traded as low as $132.80 and last traded at $130.5620. Approximately 1,456,055 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 86% from the average daily volume of 10,578,797 shares. The stock had previously closed at $139.00.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently weighed in on AAOI. Raymond James Financial reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a report on Wednesday, June 10th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Applied Optoelectronics from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Monday, April 13th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities restated a “buy” rating and issued a $220.00 price objective on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a report on Monday, June 22nd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Applied Optoelectronics has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $113.80.

Applied Optoelectronics Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a quick ratio of 3.03 and a current ratio of 3.83. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $169.00 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $104.24. The stock has a market cap of $9.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -175.17 and a beta of 3.69.

Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 quarter in the previous year, the business posted ($0.02) earnings per share. Applied Optoelectronics’s revenue for the quarter was up 51.3% on a year-over-year basis. Applied Optoelectronics has set its Q2 2026 guidance at -0.030-0.030 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. will post 0.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Chih-Hsiang (Thompson) Lin sold 59,000 shares of Applied Optoelectronics stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $166.53, for a total transaction of $9,825,270.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 1,302,436 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $216,894,667.08. The trade was a 4.33% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed 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 company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $166.53, for a total value of $5,495,490.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 384,576 shares in the company, valued at $64,043,441.28. This represents a 7.90% 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. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 500,215 shares of company stock worth $86,716,414. 3.80% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Applied Optoelectronics

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

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.