Portolan Capital Management LLC recently announced the acquisition of new stake in Applied Optoelectronics Inc (NASDAQ:AAOI). This fresh investment now brings its stake to 3.64% valued currently at $13.33 million. In addition, EAM Investors LLC raised its holdings by 0.76 million to 0.76 million shares. And Marshall Wace LLP has lifted its position by 101.70% or 0.25 million shares – to 0.49 million shares.
With over 5.07 million Applied Optoelectronics Inc (AAOI) shares trading Tuesday and a closing price of $12.28 on the day, the dollar volume was approximately $62.32 million. The shares have shown a positive half year performance of 609.83% and its price on 11/14/23 gained nearly 11.64%. Currently, there are 35.54M common shares owned by the public and among those 32.51M shares have been available to trade.
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An analysis of what Wall Street brokers have to say about the expected price targets for this stock gives us this picture: 3 analysts who have offered their price forecasts for AAOI have a consensus price objective of $16.75. The analysts have set the share’s price value over the next 12 months at a high of $20.00 and a low of $13.50. The average price target is 26.69% above its recent price level and an upside to the estimated low will see the stock gain 9.04% over that period. But an upside of 38.6% will see the stock hit the forecast high price target while median target price for the stock is $16.75.
Insiders at the company have transacted a total of 118 times over the past 12 months, according to data filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 20 of these insider trades were purchases, accounting for 1,159,565 shares. Insider sales of the common stock occurred on 98 occasions, with total insider shares sold totaling 485,743 shares.
The top 3 mutual fund holders in Applied Optoelectronics Inc are Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF, Royce Micro Cap Fund, and Heptagon Fund ICAV – Driehaus US. Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF owns 0.85 million shares of the company’s stock, all valued at over $9.33 million. The company bought an additional 21937.0 shares recently to bring their total holdings to about 2.55% of the shares outstanding. Royce Micro Cap Fund bought 66600.0 shares to see its total holdings expand to 0.54 million shares valued at over $5.96 million and representing 1.63% of the shares outstanding. Heptagon Fund ICAV – Driehaus US bought 0.54 million shares to bring its total holdings to over 0.54 million shares at a value of $5.88 million. Heptagon Fund ICAV – Driehaus US now owns shares totaling to 1.61% of the shares outstanding.
Shares of Applied Optoelectronics Inc (NASDAQ: AAOI) opened at $11.23, up $0.23 from a prior closing price of $11.00. However, the script later moved the day high at 12.55, up 11.64%. The company’s stock has a 5-day price change of 24.17% and -5.76% over the past three months. AAOI shares are trading 549.74% year to date (YTD), with the 12-month market performance up to 427.04% higher. It has a 12-month low price of $1.60 and touched a high of $16.26 over the same period. AAOI has an average intraday trading volume of 2.29 million shares. The stock is trading above its simple moving averages at the SMA20, SMA50, and SMA200, as the current price level is off by 48.88%, 33.32%, and 104.13% respectively.
Institutional ownership of Applied Optoelectronics Inc (NASDAQ: AAOI) shares accounts for 34.29% of the company’s 35.54M shares outstanding. Mutual fund holders own 16.01%, while other institutional holders and individual stakeholders account for 17.50% and 12.84% respectively.
It has a market capitalization of $436.43M and a beta (3y monthly) value of 1.83. The earnings-per-share (ttm) stands at -$2.12. Price movements for the stock have been influenced by the stock’s volatility, which stands at 13.48% over the week and 9.24% over the month.
Analysts forecast that Applied Optoelectronics Inc (AAOI) will achieve an EPS of -$0.01 for the current quarter, -$0.01 for the next quarter and $0.51 for 2024. The lowest estimate earnings-per-share for the quarter is -$0.03 while analysts give the company a high EPS estimate of $0.02. Comparatively, EPS for the current quarter was -$0.19 a year ago. Earnings per share for the fiscal year are expected to increase by 51.82%, and 204.79% over the next financial year.
If you are looking to buy this stock, then you may note that the average analyst recommendation by 3 brokerage firm advisors rate Applied Optoelectronics Inc (AAOI) as a “Strong Buy” at a consensus score of 1.67. Specifically, 2 Wall Street analysts polled rate the stock as a buy, while 1 of the 3 advise that investors “hold,” and 0 rated it as a “Sell.”
Looking at the support for the AAOI, a number of firms have released research notes about the stock. B. Riley Securities stated their Buy rating for the stock in a research note on August 04, 2023, with the firm’s price target at $2.50-$11.50.
