Rice Hall James & Associates LLC Raises Position in Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI)

Rice Hall James & Associates LLC raised its holdings in shares of Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI) by 75.8% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 235,763 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after acquiring an additional 101,640 shares during the period. Rice Hall James & Associates LLC’s holdings in Applied Optoelectronics were worth $3,374,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Shellback Capital LP bought a new stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics in the 2nd quarter valued at about $8,617,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Applied Optoelectronics by 29.2% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,954,498 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $27,089,000 after purchasing an additional 442,277 shares during the last quarter. Caxton Associates LP boosted its stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 550.5% during the second quarter. Caxton Associates LP now owns 411,054 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $3,408,000 after purchasing an additional 347,867 shares during the period. Whale Rock Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 30.0% in the first quarter. Whale Rock Capital Management LLC now owns 1,333,957 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $18,489,000 after purchasing an additional 308,172 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Kennedy Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 88.6% in the first quarter. Kennedy Capital Management LLC now owns 463,213 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $6,420,000 after purchasing an additional 217,624 shares during the last quarter. 61.72% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider David C. Kuo sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $15.02, for a total value of $150,200.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 132,921 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,996,473.42. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Company insiders own 5.40% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on AAOI shares. B. Riley dropped their price target on shares of Applied Optoelectronics from $12.00 to $9.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. StockNews.com raised Applied Optoelectronics to a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday, October 25th. B. Riley Financial restated a “neutral” rating and set a $9.00 price target on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a report on Thursday, August 8th. Raymond James upgraded Applied Optoelectronics from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $17.00 price objective for the company in a report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “buy” rating and set a $20.00 target price on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Applied Optoelectronics has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $13.75.

Applied Optoelectronics Stock Performance

Shares of AAOI opened at $16.84 on Friday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $14.69 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $11.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41, a current ratio of 1.64 and a quick ratio of 0.97. The firm has a market capitalization of $688.76 million, a PE ratio of -8.82 and a beta of 1.96. Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. has a one year low of $6.70 and a one year high of $24.75.

Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The semiconductor company reported ($0.28) EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.29) by $0.01. The company had revenue of $43.27 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $44.14 million. Applied Optoelectronics had a negative return on equity of 19.82% and a negative net margin of 34.84%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted ($0.31) EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. will post -1.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About Applied Optoelectronics

Applied Optoelectronics, Inc designs, manufactures, and sells fiber-optic networking products in the United States, Taiwan, and China. It offers optical modules, optical filters, lasers, laser components, subassemblies, transmitters and transceivers, turn-key equipment, headend, node, distribution equipment, and amplifiers.