Kestra Private Wealth Services LLC Buys Shares of 6,390 Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. $AAOI

Key Points

• Kestra Private Wealth Services bought a new stake of 6,390 shares in Applied Optoelectronics (AAOI) in Q4, valued at about $223,000, while other funds also initiated small positions and institutional ownership stands around 61.7%.
• Q1 results and Q2 guidance disappointed, triggering an ~11.8% share drop; analysts remain mixed with a consensus "Hold" and an average target price of about $52.80.
• Significant insider selling: insiders have sold 314,333 shares worth roughly $29.26 million over the past three months, reducing insider stakes.

Kestra Private Wealth Services LLC bought a new stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI - Free Report) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 6,390 shares of the semiconductor company's stock, valued at approximately $223,000.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Comerica Bank purchased a new stake in Applied Optoelectronics during the 3rd quarter valued at $28,000. Headlands Technologies LLC purchased a new stake in Applied Optoelectronics during the 2nd quarter valued at $57,000. Wexford Capital LP purchased a new stake in Applied Optoelectronics during the 3rd quarter valued at $95,000. SeaCrest Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Applied Optoelectronics during the 4th quarter valued at $206,000. Finally, CoreCap Advisors LLC raised its stake in Applied Optoelectronics by 711.4% during the 3rd quarter. CoreCap Advisors LLC now owns 5,712 shares of the semiconductor company's stock valued at $148,000 after buying an additional 5,008 shares during the last quarter. 61.70% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on AAOI shares. Needham & Company LLC boosted their target price on shares of Applied Optoelectronics from $43.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, February 27th. Northland Securities restated a "market perform" rating and issued a $55.00 price objective on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research note on Friday, February 27th. Wall Street Zen lowered Applied Optoelectronics from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research note on Monday, April 13th. Rosenblatt Securities restated a "buy" rating and issued a $50.00 price objective on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research note on Thursday, February 19th. Finally, B. Riley Financial upgraded Applied Optoelectronics from a "sell" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $54.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Friday, February 27th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Applied Optoelectronics currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $52.80.

Key Stories Impacting Applied Optoelectronics

Here are the key news stories impacting Applied Optoelectronics this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Company reports wins with hyperscale customers mentioned in a portfolio review, which could support longer-term revenue if those orders scale. Carillon Eagle Fund Q1 2026 Portfolio Review
• Neutral Sentiment: Company filed an official press release with full Q1 results and commentary; use this for company-provided detail on results and order commentary. GlobeNewswire: Q1 2026 Results
• Neutral Sentiment: Brokerage consensus remains around a "Hold" rating, indicating mixed analyst sentiment despite the recent volatility. Brokerage Ratings Summary
• Negative Sentiment: Q1 results missed expectations: EPS of -$0.07 (vs. consensus -$0.05) and revenue $151.14M (vs. $156.98M), with negative net margin and ROE — a clear near-term fundamental miss. Company Press Release / Q1 Report
• Negative Sentiment: Q2 guidance underwhelms: EPS guidance of -$0.03 to $0.03 and revenue $180M–$198M both come in below consensus (EPS ~ $0.07; revenue ~$194.1M), prompting investor concern over near-term demand and margin recovery.
• Negative Sentiment: Market reaction and sector tilt: the optics/AI connectivity trade cooled and AAOI shares sold off in intraday trading alongside peers, reflecting rotation and concern about whether smaller optics suppliers will capture large hyperscale spending. Optics Trade Pullback Coverage
• Negative Sentiment: Competitive pressure from large suppliers: coverage on Corning’s large-capacity, hyperscale agreements and NVIDIA-backed expansion highlights a risk that bigger, contract-backed suppliers could win long-term, high-volume deals at the expense of peers like AAOI. Corning/NVIDIA Optical Capacity Article

Applied Optoelectronics Trading Down 11.8%

Shares of Applied Optoelectronics stock opened at $157.55 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $12.61 billion, a P/E ratio of -242.38 and a beta of 3.76. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a quick ratio of 1.91 and a current ratio of 2.63. The company has a fifty day moving average of $119.57 and a 200 day moving average of $64.55. Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $12.56 and a fifty-two week high of $191.87.

Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 26th. The semiconductor company reported ($0.01) earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.12) by $0.11. The company had revenue of $134.27 million during 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%. Applied Optoelectronics's quarterly revenue was up 33.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted ($0.02) EPS. Applied Optoelectronics has set its Q1 2026 guidance at -0.090-0.000 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. will post 0.66 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Shu-Hua (Joshua) Yeh sold 50,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Monday, March 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $97.10, for a total value of $4,855,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 322,051 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $31,271,152.10. This represents a 13.44% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Cynthia Delaney sold 21,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $98.02, for a total transaction of $2,058,420.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 116,222 shares of the company's stock, valued at $11,392,080.44. This represents a 15.30% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 314,333 shares of company stock worth $29,262,106 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 3.80% 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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