Tudor Investment Corp ET AL Sells 46,485 Shares of Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. $AAOI

Key Points

• Tudor Investment Corp trimmed its stake in Applied Optoelectronics by 9.4%, selling 46,485 shares and leaving it with 448,957 shares (~$11.64M), while other institutions like Vanguard added large positions—institutional investors now own about 61.7% of AAOI.
• Analysts are mixed: the consensus rating is "Hold" with an average price target of $52.80, though some brokers raised targets (e.g., Needham to $80) and ratings vary between Buy, Hold and Sell.
• Company insiders sold heavily (326,333 shares worth ~$29.4M over three months), even as AAOI beat the quarter's EPS and revenue estimates (EPS -$0.01 vs -$0.12; revenue $134.3M, +33.9% YoY) but provided Q1 guidance of -$0.09 to $0.00 and remains loss-making on a GAAP basis.

Tudor Investment Corp ET AL lowered its holdings in shares of Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI - Free Report) by 9.4% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 448,957 shares of the semiconductor company's stock after selling 46,485 shares during the period. Tudor Investment Corp ET AL owned about 0.66% of Applied Optoelectronics worth $11,641,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of AAOI. Hawk Ridge Capital Management LP bought a new stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics in the third quarter worth $21,392,000. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. bought a new position in Applied Optoelectronics during the 3rd quarter worth $19,738,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Applied Optoelectronics by 13.6% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,624,570 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $119,915,000 after buying an additional 551,910 shares during the period. Citigroup Inc. lifted its holdings in Applied Optoelectronics by 60.0% during the 3rd quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 1,160,456 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $30,091,000 after buying an additional 435,349 shares during the period. Finally, Penn Capital Management Company LLC bought a new stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics in the 3rd quarter valued at about $11,057,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 61.70% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on AAOI. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $50.00 price target on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research note on Thursday, February 19th. Needham & Company LLC lifted their price objective on Applied Optoelectronics from $43.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, February 27th. B. Riley Financial upgraded Applied Optoelectronics from a "sell" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $54.00 target price on the stock in a report on Friday, February 27th. Northland Securities reissued a "market perform" rating and set a $55.00 target price on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research report on Friday, February 27th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Applied Optoelectronics from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Sunday. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Applied Optoelectronics presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $52.80.

Applied Optoelectronics Stock Performance

AAOI stock opened at $103.91 on Monday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $73.69 and a 200-day moving average price of $45.97. Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. has a 1-year low of $9.71 and a 1-year high of $128.96. The company has a current ratio of 2.63, a quick ratio of 1.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. The firm has a market cap of $7.81 billion, a PE ratio of -159.86 and a beta of 3.23.

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

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Elizabeth G. Loboa sold 102,347 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $95.76, for a total transaction of $9,800,748.72. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 20,523 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,965,282.48. This represents a 83.30% 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, Director Cynthia Delaney sold 21,000 shares of the firm'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 sale, the director owned 116,222 shares of the company's stock, valued at $11,392,080.44. The trade was a 15.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last three months, insiders sold 326,333 shares of company stock worth $29,392,957. Company insiders own 4.50% of the company's stock.

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.

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