Rice Hall James & Associates LLC Has $8.32 Million Stock Holdings in Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. $AAOI

Key Points

• Rice Hall James & Associates cut its Applied Optoelectronics stake by 42.7% in the first quarter, though it still held 98,318 shares valued at about $8.32 million.
• Applied Optoelectronics reported a Q1 EPS miss and revenue of $151.14 million, below estimates, even as revenue rose 51.3% year over year. The company also guided Q2 2026 EPS between -$0.03 and $0.03.
• Sentiment around the stock is mixed: analysts currently have a Hold consensus with a $141.80 target, while insiders have been selling shares, including notable sales by a director and the CFO.

Rice Hall James & Associates LLC decreased its position in shares of Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI - Free Report) by 42.7% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 98,318 shares of the semiconductor company's stock after selling 73,252 shares during the quarter. Rice Hall James & Associates LLC owned about 0.12% of Applied Optoelectronics worth $8,317,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of AAOI. Allworth Financial LP raised its holdings in Applied Optoelectronics by 1,923.7% in the fourth 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 period. NFSG Corp acquired a new position in shares of Applied Optoelectronics in the 1st quarter valued at $85,000. Comerica Bank bought a new stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics in the 3rd quarter valued at $28,000. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. increased its position in shares of 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 valued at $42,000 after buying an additional 750 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC acquired a new stake in Applied Optoelectronics during the 4th quarter worth $55,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 61.70% of the company's stock.

Applied Optoelectronics Trading Down 10.6%

AAOI opened at $100.15 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.04 billion, a P/E ratio of -151.74 and a beta of 3.69. The company has a current ratio of 3.83, a quick ratio of 3.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. has a 12 month low of $18.50 and a 12 month high of $233.67. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is $150.48 and its 200 day simple moving average is $113.09.

Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI - Get Free Report) last released 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 return on equity of 4.64% and a negative net margin of 8.55%.The firm had revenue of $151.14 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $156.98 million. During the same quarter last year, the company posted ($0.02) EPS. Applied Optoelectronics's revenue for the quarter was up 51.3% on a year-over-year basis. Applied Optoelectronics has set its Q2 2026 guidance at -0.030-0.030 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. will post 0.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

Insider Activity at Applied Optoelectronics

In related news, Director Cynthia Delaney sold 56,575 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $189.23, for a total transaction of $10,705,687.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 59,647 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,287,001.81. This trade represents a 48.68% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Stefan J. Murry sold 33,000 shares of Applied Optoelectronics stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $173.26, for a total value of $5,717,580.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 451,906 shares in the company, valued at approximately $78,297,233.56. This represents a 6.81% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Insiders sold 500,215 shares of company stock valued at $86,658,774 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 3.80% of the company's stock.

Applied Optoelectronics 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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