Insider Selling: Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) Insider Sells 34,000 Shares of Stock

Key Points

• Insider sale: Applied Optoelectronics insider Hung-Lun (Fred) Chang sold 34,000 shares on June 12 at an average price of $166.53, totaling about $5.66 million. The filing said the sale was to cover tax withholding obligations tied to vesting equity awards.
• Recent insider activity: Chang has also sold shares in two earlier transactions, including 4,000 shares on June 5 and 33,630 shares on May 19, indicating a pattern of recent insider selling.
• Stock and business backdrop: AAOI fell 10.7% to $171.06 as the company continued to show mixed fundamentals, including a narrower-than-expected quarterly loss and revenue growth of 51.3% year over year, while analysts currently rate the stock a consensus Hold with a $79.80 average price target.

Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI - Get Free Report) insider Hung-Lun (Fred) Chang sold 34,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $166.53, for a total transaction of $5,662,020.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 326,453 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $54,364,218.09. This trade represents a 9.43% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards.

Hung-Lun (Fred) Chang also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Friday, June 5th, Hung-Lun (Fred) Chang sold 4,000 shares of Applied Optoelectronics stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $200.07, for a total transaction of $800,280.00.
• On Tuesday, May 19th, Hung-Lun (Fred) Chang sold 33,630 shares of Applied Optoelectronics stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $173.26, for a total transaction of $5,826,733.80.

Applied Optoelectronics Trading Down 10.7%

NASDAQ AAOI traded down $20.49 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $171.06. The company's stock had a trading volume of 13,006,588 shares, compared to its average volume of 10,508,214. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $165.57 and a 200-day simple moving average of $93.67. The stock has a market cap of $13.73 billion, a P/E ratio of -259.18 and a beta of 3.67. Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. has a 52 week low of $16.55 and a 52 week high of $233.67. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a current ratio of 3.83 and a quick ratio of 3.03.

Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 net margin of 8.55% and a negative return on equity of 4.64%. The business had revenue of $151.14 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $156.98 million. During the same quarter last year, the business earned ($0.02) EPS. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 51.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Applied Optoelectronics has set its Q2 2026 guidance at -0.030-0.030 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. will post 0.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Applied Optoelectronics

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Allworth Financial LP grew its position 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 purchasing an additional 731 shares during the period. Comerica Bank acquired a new stake in Applied Optoelectronics in the 3rd quarter valued at $28,000. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. grew its position 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 during the 4th quarter valued at $55,000. Finally, Headlands Technologies LLC bought a new position in Applied Optoelectronics during the 2nd quarter valued at $57,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 61.70% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently commented on AAOI shares. Northland Securities reaffirmed a "market perform" rating and set a $55.00 price objective on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research report on Friday, February 27th. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a $50.00 price objective on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research report on Thursday, February 19th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Applied Optoelectronics from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research report on Monday, April 13th. Needham & Company LLC raised their price objective on shares of Applied Optoelectronics from $43.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, February 27th. Finally, Raymond James Financial reissued an "outperform" rating on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research report on Wednesday, June 10th. 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 company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $79.80.

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.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.