Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) Downgraded to “Sell” Rating by Wall Street Zen

Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) was downgraded by stock analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report issued on Saturday.

A number of other brokerages have also issued reports on AAOI. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $50.00 price objective on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a report on Thursday, February 19th. B. Riley Financial upgraded shares of Applied Optoelectronics from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $54.00 target price on the stock in a report on Friday, February 27th. Northland Securities reissued a “market perform” rating and issued a $55.00 price target on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research note on Friday, February 27th. Needham & Company LLC raised their price target on shares of Applied Optoelectronics from $43.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 27th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research report on Wednesday, January 21st. 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 company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $52.80.

Applied Optoelectronics Stock Performance

NASDAQ AAOI opened at $98.21 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $68.19 and its two-hundred day moving average is $43.45. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.39 billion, a P/E ratio of -151.09 and a beta of 3.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a quick ratio of 1.91 and a current ratio of 2.63. Applied Optoelectronics has a fifty-two week low of $9.71 and a fifty-two week high of $128.96.

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

Insider Transactions at Applied Optoelectronics

In other Applied Optoelectronics news, CFO Stefan J. Murry sold 4,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $112.76, for a total transaction of $451,040.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 280,070 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $31,580,693.20. This trade represents a 1.41% 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, insider David C. Kuo sold 29,000 shares of Applied Optoelectronics stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $100.13, for a total transaction of $2,903,770.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 82,663 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,277,046.19. This represents a 25.97% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 326,333 shares of company stock worth $29,392,957 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 4.50% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Applied Optoelectronics

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. boosted its stake 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 valued at $393,000 after purchasing an additional 2,415 shares during the period. Cetera Investment Advisers purchased a new stake in Applied Optoelectronics during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $377,000. Ensign Peak Advisors Inc acquired a new stake in Applied Optoelectronics during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $537,000. Swiss National Bank lifted its holdings in Applied Optoelectronics by 3.4% during the 2nd quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 91,200 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $2,343,000 after buying an additional 3,000 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc boosted its position in Applied Optoelectronics by 46.5% in the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 64,744 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $1,663,000 after buying an additional 20,563 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 61.70% of the company’s stock.

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.