Raymond James Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) Stock

Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) had its price objective upped by analysts at Raymond James to $31.00 in a report issued on Friday, Stock Target Advisor reports. The brokerage presently has a “buy” rating on the semiconductor company’s stock. Raymond James’ target price indicates a potential upside of 41.81% from the company’s current price.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. Northland Securities reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $40.00 price target (up from $25.00) on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. StockNews.com raised Applied Optoelectronics to a “sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $44.00 target price on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research note on Monday, February 24th. Finally, B. Riley cut Applied Optoelectronics from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $14.00 target price for the company. in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Applied Optoelectronics currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $27.60.

Applied Optoelectronics Trading Down 9.1 %

AAOI stock opened at $21.86 on Friday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $30.33 and a 200 day moving average price of $24.13. Applied Optoelectronics has a fifty-two week low of $6.70 and a fifty-two week high of $44.50. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -10.61 and a beta of 2.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 1.61 and a quick ratio of 1.06.

Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The semiconductor company reported ($0.09) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.02) by ($0.07). Applied Optoelectronics had a negative net margin of 38.61% and a negative return on equity of 22.36%. The business had revenue of $100.27 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $99.92 million. Analysts expect that Applied Optoelectronics will post -1.18 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Applied Optoelectronics

In other news, CFO Stefan J. Murry sold 2,298 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.17, for a total value of $80,820.66. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 209,831 shares in the company, valued at $7,379,756.27. This trade represents a 1.08 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director Richard B. Black sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.27, for a total value of $352,700.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 167,813 shares in the company, valued at $5,918,764.51. This represents a 5.62 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 36,298 shares of company stock worth $1,281,201 in the last three months. Insiders own 5.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AAOI. Meeder Asset Management Inc. bought a new position in Applied Optoelectronics during the fourth quarter worth about $38,000. Sterling Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Applied Optoelectronics by 858.2% during the fourth quarter. Sterling Capital Management LLC now owns 1,284 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $47,000 after acquiring an additional 1,150 shares in the last quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board bought a new position in Applied Optoelectronics during the fourth quarter worth about $63,000. Pingora Partners LLC bought a new position in Applied Optoelectronics during the third quarter worth about $82,000. Finally, FMR LLC lifted its holdings in Applied Optoelectronics by 3,290.6% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 6,137 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $88,000 after acquiring an additional 5,956 shares in the last quarter. 61.72% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.