Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) Upgraded at B. Riley Financial

B. Riley Financial upgraded shares of Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) from a sell rating to a neutral rating in a report issued on Friday morning, MarketBeat.com reports. The firm currently has $54.00 target price on the semiconductor company’s stock, up from their prior target price of $15.00.

Other research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research note on Wednesday, January 21st. Northland Securities set a $45.00 price target on Applied Optoelectronics in a research report on Thursday, December 11th. Rosenblatt Securities restated a “buy” rating and set a $50.00 price target on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research note on Thursday, February 19th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC upped 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. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $52.80.

Applied Optoelectronics Stock Performance

Shares of Applied Optoelectronics stock opened at $84.23 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.91, a current ratio of 2.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $42.16 and its two-hundred day moving average is $32.72. Applied Optoelectronics has a 52 week low of $9.71 and a 52 week high of $84.31. The company has a market capitalization of $6.33 billion, a PE ratio of -129.58 and a beta of 3.19.

Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 26th. The semiconductor company reported ($0.01) earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.12) by $0.11. The business had revenue of $134.27 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $131.56 million. Applied Optoelectronics had a negative return on equity of 5.29% and a negative net margin of 8.39%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 33.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned ($0.02) earnings per share. Applied Optoelectronics has set its Q1 2026 guidance at -0.090-0.000 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Applied Optoelectronics will post -1.18 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Applied Optoelectronics news, insider David C. Kuo sold 17,467 shares of Applied Optoelectronics stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.17, for a total value of $876,319.39. Following the transaction, the insider owned 111,663 shares in the company, valued at $5,602,132.71. The trade was a 13.53% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Stefan J. Murry sold 11,693 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.25, for a total transaction of $587,573.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 290,050 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,575,012.50. This represents a 3.88% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 66,520 shares of company stock valued at $3,080,367 over the last 90 days. 4.50% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Applied Optoelectronics

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Allworth Financial LP increased its position in Applied Optoelectronics by 1,923.7% during the 4th quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 769 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $27,000 after buying an additional 731 shares in the last quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 497.5% during the second quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 962 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 801 shares during the last quarter. Comerica Bank acquired a new position in shares of Applied Optoelectronics in the 3rd quarter valued at about $28,000. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. boosted its position in Applied Optoelectronics by 166.7% in the 4th quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 1,200 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $42,000 after purchasing an additional 750 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC purchased a new position in Applied Optoelectronics in the fourth quarter valued at $55,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 61.70% of the company’s stock.

Key Stories Impacting Applied Optoelectronics

Here are the key news stories impacting Applied Optoelectronics this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Q4 beat and revenue strength: AAOI reported a $0.01 loss per share vs. consensus -$0.12 and revenue of $134.3M, up ~34% year-over-year — both results topped estimates and underpinned the rally. MarketBeat earnings summary
• Positive Sentiment: Upside revenue guidance: Management raised Q1 2026 revenue guidance to $150M–$165M, above consensus, signaling continued demand — a key driver for investor optimism. GlobeNewswire press release
• Positive Sentiment: Bullish write-up highlighting large growth potential: 247WallStreet published a bullish piece framing AAOI as entering a “10x moment” with aggressive revenue projections that likely boosted speculative buying interest. AAOI’s 10x Moment
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst upgrade / target increase from Needham: Needham raised its price target to $80 and maintained a “buy” rating, lending institutional validation to the recent beat and outlook. Benzinga
• Neutral Sentiment: EPS still a small loss despite beat: The company reported a small GAAP loss but beat the much larger consensus loss estimate — a mixed data point for profitability progress. Zacks
• Neutral Sentiment: Conference call and detailed release available for off-cycle color: Investors should review the earnings call transcript and press release for product, margin and backlog details that will determine sustainability of the beat. Earnings call (Yahoo)
• Negative Sentiment: Some analyst targets remain below current levels: Northland reaffirmed a “market perform” with a $55 target and B. Riley’s $54 target (despite an upgrade to neutral) both imply sizable downside from current prices — a restraint on further upside until fundamentals confirm sustainability. Finviz Benzinga
• Neutral Sentiment: Short-interest data appears inconsistent: Public short-interest reports in the feed show zero shares/NaN changes (likely data errors) — ignore until verified; actual short-covering could amplify moves but current data is unreliable.

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.