Global Trust Asset Management LLC Takes $969,000 Position in Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. $AAOI

Key Points

• Global Trust Asset Management purchased a new stake of 27,804 shares in Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) in Q4, valued at approximately $969,000 per its latest 13F filing.
• Applied Optoelectronics beat Q4 estimates with EPS of -$0.01 (vs. -$0.12 est.) and revenue of $134.27M (up 33.9% YoY), but provided Q1 guidance of -$0.09 to $0.00 EPS and remains unprofitable on the year.
• Analyst sentiment is mixed (average rating: Hold, consensus price target $52.80), while insiders have sold heavily recently (326,333 shares worth about $29.4M in the last 90 days) and institutional investors own roughly 61.7% of the stock.

Global Trust Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI - Free Report) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 27,804 shares of the semiconductor company's stock, valued at approximately $969,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of AAOI. SeaCrest Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics during the 4th quarter worth approximately $206,000. Penn Capital Management Company LLC purchased a new stake in Applied Optoelectronics during the third quarter worth about $11,057,000. Castleark Management LLC acquired a new stake in Applied Optoelectronics during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $3,251,000. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co grew its stake in Applied Optoelectronics by 260.9% during the 3rd quarter. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co now owns 11,884 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $308,000 after purchasing an additional 8,591 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Alyeska Investment Group L.P. purchased a new stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics during the third quarter worth approximately $19,738,000. 61.70% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have issued reports on AAOI. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a "sell (d-)" rating on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a report on Wednesday, January 21st. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Applied Optoelectronics from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research note on Saturday, March 28th. B. Riley Financial raised Applied Optoelectronics from a "sell" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $54.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 27th. Northland Securities restated a "market perform" rating and set a $55.00 price objective on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research report on Friday, February 27th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities restated a "buy" rating and issued a $50.00 price objective on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research report on Thursday, February 19th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $52.80.

Applied Optoelectronics Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:AAOI opened at $103.91 on Friday. Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. has a 12-month low of $9.71 and a 12-month high of $128.96. The stock's 50-day moving average price is $73.69 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $45.74. The firm has a market cap of $7.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -159.86 and a beta of 3.23. The company has a current ratio of 2.63, a quick ratio of 1.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Shu-Hua (Joshua) Yeh sold 50,000 shares of Applied Optoelectronics stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the insider owned 322,051 shares in the company, valued at approximately $31,271,152.10. This trade represents a 13.44% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed 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 value of $2,903,770.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 82,663 shares in the company, valued at $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. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 326,333 shares of company stock worth $29,392,957. Corporate insiders own 4.50% of the company's stock.

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.

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