Fifth Third Bancorp Takes Position in Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. $AAOI

Fifth Third Bancorp purchased a new position in shares of Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI) in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 19,325 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,635,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in AAOI. Hsbc Holdings PLC purchased a new stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics during the first quarter worth $442,000. Geneva Partners LLC acquired a new position in Applied Optoelectronics during the first quarter worth about $2,497,000. Abel Hall LLC purchased a new stake in Applied Optoelectronics during the 1st quarter valued at about $324,000. Ariose Capital Management Ltd purchased a new stake in Applied Optoelectronics during the 1st quarter valued at about $8,797,000. Finally, Sierra Summit Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Applied Optoelectronics in the 1st quarter valued at about $855,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 61.70% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Applied Optoelectronics

In related news, CEO Chih-Hsiang (Thompson) Lin sold 59,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $166.53, for a total transaction of $9,825,270.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,302,436 shares in the company, valued at $216,894,667.08. This trade represents a 4.33% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, insider Shu-Hua (Joshua) Yeh sold 6,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $171.89, for a total transaction of $1,031,340.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 394,207 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $67,760,241.23. The trade was a 1.50% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last three months, insiders have sold 500,215 shares of company stock worth $86,658,774. 3.80% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Applied Optoelectronics Price Performance

Applied Optoelectronics stock opened at $112.02 on Friday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $152.29 and its 200-day simple moving average is $113.19. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a quick ratio of 3.03 and a current ratio of 3.83. Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. has a 1 year low of $18.50 and a 1 year high of $233.67. The company has a market capitalization of $8.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -169.73 and a beta of 3.69.

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Raymond James Financial restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research report on Wednesday, June 10th. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $220.00 target price on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research note on Monday, June 22nd. Needham & Company LLC cut their price objective on shares of Applied Optoelectronics from $260.00 to $220.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research note on Tuesday, July 7th. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Applied Optoelectronics from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Monday, April 13th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $141.80.

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.