Insider Selling: Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) Director Sells 56,575 Shares of Stock

Key Points

• Director Cynthia Delaney sold 56,575 shares of Applied Optoelectronics on May 26 at an average price of $189.23, generating about $10.7 million and cutting her position by 48.68%.
• AAOI shares fell 6.0% to $169.02 in Thursday trading, even as volume stayed roughly in line with its average and the stock remained far above its 52-week low.
• The company missed Q1 earnings and revenue estimates, reporting EPS of -$0.07 on revenue of $151.14 million, though revenue still rose 51.3% year over year.

Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI - Get Free Report) Director Cynthia Delaney sold 56,575 shares of the firm'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 sale, the director owned 59,647 shares of the company's stock, valued at $11,287,001.81. This trade represents a 48.68% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website.

Cynthia Delaney also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Wednesday, March 4th, Cynthia Delaney sold 21,000 shares of Applied Optoelectronics stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $98.02, for a total transaction of $2,058,420.00.

Applied Optoelectronics Trading Down 6.0%

Shares of NASDAQ:AAOI traded down $10.81 during trading on Thursday, reaching $169.02. The stock had a trading volume of 9,872,313 shares, compared to its average volume of 9,891,934. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $143.58 and a 200-day moving average price of $79.20. 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 stock has a market cap of $13.56 billion, a P/E ratio of -256.09 and a beta of 3.76. Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $15.06 and a fifty-two week high of $233.67.

Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 7th. The semiconductor company reported ($0.07) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.05) by ($0.02). Applied Optoelectronics had a negative net margin of 8.55% and a negative return on equity of 4.64%. The firm had revenue of $151.14 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $156.98 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned ($0.02) EPS. The business's quarterly revenue 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, analysts anticipate that Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. will post 0.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AAOI has been the subject of several analyst reports. Needham & Company LLC upped 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. Rosenblatt Securities restated a "buy" rating and issued a $50.00 target price on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research note on Thursday, February 19th. Northland Securities restated a "market perform" rating and issued a $55.00 target price on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research note on Friday, February 27th. B. Riley Financial upgraded shares of Applied Optoelectronics from a "sell" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $54.00 target price for the company in a research note on Friday, February 27th. Finally, Raymond James Financial restated an "outperform" rating and issued a $160.00 target price on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $79.80.

Institutional Trading of Applied Optoelectronics

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AAOI. Invesco Ltd. raised its holdings in Applied Optoelectronics by 5,208.9% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,512,309 shares of the semiconductor company's stock valued at $122,439,000 after acquiring an additional 3,446,150 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its holdings in Applied Optoelectronics by 5,321.6% in the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 2,229,757 shares of the semiconductor company's stock valued at $77,730,000 after acquiring an additional 2,188,630 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley raised its holdings in Applied Optoelectronics by 157.1% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 1,699,855 shares of the semiconductor company's stock valued at $59,257,000 after acquiring an additional 1,038,775 shares in the last quarter. Hawk Ridge Capital Management LP raised its holdings in Applied Optoelectronics by 106.2% in the fourth quarter. Hawk Ridge Capital Management LP now owns 1,700,900 shares of the semiconductor company's stock valued at $59,293,000 after acquiring an additional 875,903 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Artemis Investment Management LLP acquired a new stake in Applied Optoelectronics in the fourth quarter valued at $26,923,000. 61.70% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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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