Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (AAOI) Receives “Buy” Rating from Craig Hallum

Craig Hallum reiterated their buy rating on shares of Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI) in a research note released on Friday, July 14th, The Fly reports. Craig Hallum currently has a $95.00 price target on the semiconductor company’s stock, up from their prior price target of $85.00.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently weighed in on the company. Vetr cut Applied Optoelectronics from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating and set a $84.73 price target on the stock. in a report on Friday, July 14th. ValuEngine lowered shares of Applied Optoelectronics from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note on Thursday, July 13th. Roth Capital raised their price objective on shares of Applied Optoelectronics from $70.00 to $90.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Thursday, July 13th. Piper Jaffray Companies reiterated an overweight rating and set a $90.00 price objective (up previously from $85.00) on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research note on Thursday, July 13th. Finally, BidaskClub upgraded shares of Applied Optoelectronics from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 12th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. The stock has a consensus rating of Buy and an average price target of $80.64.

Shares of Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ AAOI) traded down 1.21% on Friday, hitting $96.64. The stock had a trading volume of 2,629,680 shares. Applied Optoelectronics has a 12-month low of $11.60 and a 12-month high of $103.41. The company has a market cap of $1.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.05 and a beta of 2.84. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $72.31 and a 200-day moving average price of $53.91.

Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 4th. The semiconductor company reported $1.10 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the Zacks’ consensus estimate of $1.01 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $96.20 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $96.20 million. Applied Optoelectronics had a return on equity of 23.75% and a net margin of 17.08%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 90.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted ($0.04) earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that Applied Optoelectronics will post $5.01 earnings per share for the current year.

In other Applied Optoelectronics news, General Counsel David C. Kuo sold 1,116 shares of Applied Optoelectronics stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $94.87, for a total transaction of $105,874.92. Following the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 25,041 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,375,639.67. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Hung-Lun (Fred) Chang sold 10,000 shares of Applied Optoelectronics stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $59.50, for a total transaction of $595,000.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 46,054 shares in the company, valued at $2,740,213. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 138,164 shares of company stock worth $9,669,661. 8.19% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Whale Rock Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Applied Optoelectronics by 75.2% in the first quarter. Whale Rock Capital Management LLC now owns 1,155,356 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $64,873,000 after buying an additional 495,915 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Applied Optoelectronics by 7.7% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 636,472 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $35,737,000 after buying an additional 45,353 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley boosted its position in Applied Optoelectronics by 245.9% in the first quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 521,051 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $29,257,000 after buying an additional 370,427 shares during the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC boosted its position in Applied Optoelectronics by 195.2% in the first quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 514,000 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $28,861,000 after buying an additional 339,900 shares during the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp boosted its position in Applied Optoelectronics by 26.8% in the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 332,285 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $18,655,000 after buying an additional 70,219 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 78.68% of the company’s stock.

About Applied Optoelectronics

Applied Optoelectronics, Inc is a vertically integrated provider of fiber-optic networking products, primarily for networking end markets, such as Internet data center, cable television (CATV), fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) and telecommunications (telecom). The Company designs and manufactures a range of optical communications products at varying levels of integration, from components, subassemblies and modules to turnkey equipment.