Wall Street Zen Upgrades Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) to Hold

Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) was upgraded by research analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a note issued to investors on Sunday.

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

Applied Optoelectronics Price Performance

NASDAQ AAOI opened at $103.91 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. Applied Optoelectronics has a 52 week low of $9.71 and a 52 week high of $128.96. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -159.86 and a beta of 3.23. The company has a fifty day moving average of $73.69 and a two-hundred day moving average of $45.85.

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

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Shu-Hua (Joshua) Yeh sold 50,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $97.10, for a total value of $4,855,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 322,051 shares in the company, valued at approximately $31,271,152.10. The trade was a 13.44% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CFO Stefan J. Murry sold 4,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $112.76, for a total value of $451,040.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 280,070 shares in the company, valued at approximately $31,580,693.20. This trade represents a 1.41% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 326,333 shares of company stock valued at $29,392,957. Insiders own 4.50% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Applied Optoelectronics

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in Applied Optoelectronics by 5,208.9% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,512,309 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $122,439,000 after acquiring an additional 3,446,150 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 5,321.6% during the fourth 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 purchasing an additional 2,188,630 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley boosted its stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 157.1% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 1,699,855 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $59,257,000 after purchasing an additional 1,038,775 shares in the last quarter. Hawk Ridge Capital Management LP increased its holdings in Applied Optoelectronics by 106.2% during the fourth quarter. Hawk Ridge Capital Management LP now owns 1,700,900 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $59,293,000 after buying an additional 875,903 shares during the period. Finally, Artemis Investment Management LLP purchased a new position in Applied Optoelectronics during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $26,923,000. 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.