Needham & Company LLC Has Lowered Expectations for Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) Stock Price

Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) had its price objective reduced by research analysts at Needham & Company LLC from $260.00 to $220.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a “buy” rating on the semiconductor company’s stock. Needham & Company LLC’s price objective would suggest a potential upside of 96.39% from the company’s current price.

Several other research firms have also recently issued reports on AAOI. Raymond James Financial reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research note on Wednesday, June 10th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Applied Optoelectronics from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Monday, April 13th. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $220.00 price objective on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a report on Monday, June 22nd. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research report on Tuesday, July 7th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $141.80.

Applied Optoelectronics Stock Up 1.4%

Applied Optoelectronics stock opened at $112.02 on Wednesday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $152.29 and its 200 day moving average price is $113.19. The company has a quick ratio of 3.03, a current ratio of 3.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. The firm has a market cap of $8.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -169.73 and a beta of 3.69. Applied Optoelectronics has a 52 week low of $18.50 and a 52 week high of $233.67.

Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) last announced its quarterly 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 company had revenue of $151.14 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $156.98 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted ($0.02) earnings per share. The company’s revenue 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, sell-side analysts anticipate that Applied Optoelectronics will post 0.6 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Chih-Hsiang (Thompson) Lin sold 59,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $216,894,667.08. This represents a 4.33% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a 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 David C. Kuo sold 29,227 shares of the 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 $4,867,172.31. Following the transaction, the insider owned 149,078 shares in the company, valued at $24,825,959.34. This trade represents a 16.39% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Over the last three months, insiders sold 500,215 shares of company stock valued at $86,658,774. 3.80% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Applied Optoelectronics

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Allworth Financial LP raised its position in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 1,923.7% during the 4th quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 769 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 731 shares during the last quarter. Comerica Bank acquired a new stake in Applied Optoelectronics in the 3rd quarter worth about $28,000. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. boosted its holdings 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 buying an additional 750 shares during the last quarter. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC purchased a new stake in Applied Optoelectronics during the 4th quarter worth approximately $55,000. Finally, Headlands Technologies LLC purchased a new stake in Applied Optoelectronics during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $57,000. 61.70% of the stock is 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.