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

Key Points

• Rice Hall James & Associates cut its Applied Optoelectronics stake by 13.9% in the fourth quarter, selling 27,623 shares and leaving it with 171,570 shares worth about $5.98 million.
• Insider selling has been heavy, with directors Min-Chu (Mike) Chen and Cynthia Delaney among those selling shares; insiders sold a total of 298,833 shares worth $51.1 million over the past three months.
• Analyst views are mixed: the stock has a consensus “Hold” rating with an average target price of $79.80, while recent earnings missed estimates even as revenue rose 51.3% year over year.

Rice Hall James & Associates LLC trimmed its holdings in Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI - Free Report) by 13.9% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 171,570 shares of the semiconductor company's stock after selling 27,623 shares during the period. Rice Hall James & Associates LLC owned approximately 0.25% of Applied Optoelectronics worth $5,981,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of AAOI. Allworth Financial LP grew its stake in Applied Optoelectronics by 1,923.7% in the 4th quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 769 shares of the semiconductor company's stock valued at $27,000 after buying an additional 731 shares in the last quarter. Comerica Bank bought a new position in Applied Optoelectronics in the 3rd quarter valued at $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 valued at $42,000 after purchasing an additional 750 shares during the period. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC bought a new position in Applied Optoelectronics in the 4th quarter valued at $55,000. Finally, Headlands Technologies LLC bought a new position in Applied Optoelectronics in the 2nd quarter valued at $57,000. 61.70% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Applied Optoelectronics news, Director Min-Chu (Mike) Chen sold 8,247 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $201.00, for a total value of $1,657,647.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 161,053 shares of the company's stock, valued at $32,371,653. The trade was a 4.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Cynthia Delaney sold 56,575 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 26th. The shares were 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 owned 59,647 shares in the company, valued at $11,287,001.81. The trade was a 48.68% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 298,833 shares of company stock valued at $51,058,370 over the last three months. 3.80% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have commented on the stock. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $50.00 price target on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a report on Thursday, February 19th. Needham & Company LLC raised their price target on shares of Applied Optoelectronics from $43.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, February 27th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Applied Optoelectronics from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a report on Monday, April 13th. B. Riley Financial raised shares of Applied Optoelectronics from a "sell" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $54.00 price target for the company in a report on Friday, February 27th. Finally, Northland Securities reissued a "market perform" rating and issued a $55.00 price target on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a report on Friday, February 27th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Applied Optoelectronics has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $79.80.

Applied Optoelectronics Stock Performance

Applied Optoelectronics stock opened at $191.55 on Tuesday. 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 company has a market capitalization of $15.37 billion, a PE ratio of -290.23 and a beta of 3.67. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $165.57 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $93.67. Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. has a twelve month low of $15.90 and a twelve month high of $233.67.

Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The semiconductor company reported ($0.07) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.05) by ($0.02). The business had revenue of $151.14 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $156.98 million. Applied Optoelectronics had a negative return on equity of 4.64% and a negative net margin of 8.55%.The business's revenue for the quarter was up 51.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned ($0.02) earnings per share. Applied Optoelectronics has set its Q2 2026 guidance at -0.030-0.030 EPS. Research analysts expect that Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. will post 0.6 EPS for the current year.

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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