Kennedy Capital Management, Inc. recently announced the acquisition of new stake in Applied Optoelectronics Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI). This fresh investment now brings its stake to 1.84% valued currently at $0.99 million. In addition, EAM Investors LLC raised its holdings by 0.49 million to 0.49 million shares.
With over 0.13 million Applied Optoelectronics Inc. (AAOI) shares trading Friday and a closing price of $2.21 on the day, the dollar volume was approximately $0.28 million. The shares have shown a positive half year performance of 21.43% and its price on 01/20/23 lost nearly -3.49%. Currently, there are 27.84M common shares owned by the public and among those 27.14M 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: 4 analysts who have offered their price forecasts for AAOI have a consensus price objective of $4.83. The analysts have set the share’s price value over the next 12 months at a high of $7.50 and a low of $3.00. The average price target is 54.24% above its recent price level and an upside to the estimated low will see the stock gain 26.33% over that period. But an upside of 70.53% will see the stock hit the forecast high price target while median target price for the stock is $4.00.
Insiders at the company have transacted a total of 124 times over the past 12 months, according to data filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 12 of these insider trades were purchases, accounting for 851,250 shares. Insider sales of the common stock occurred on 112 occasions, with total insider shares sold totaling 275,039 shares.
The top 3 mutual fund holders in Applied Optoelectronics Inc. are Columbia Small Cap Value Fund I, Vanguard Total Stock Market Index, and Columbia Variable Portfolio-Small. Columbia Small Cap Value Fund I owns 0.86 million shares of the company’s stock, all valued at over $1.62 million. Columbia Variable Portfolio-Small sold -0.13 million shares to bring its total holdings to over 0.35 million shares at a value of $0.67 million. Columbia Variable Portfolio-Small now owns shares totaling to 1.24% of the shares outstanding.
However, the script later moved the day high at 2.3000, down -3.49%. The company’s stock has a 5-day price change of -5.96% and -21.07% over the past three months. AAOI shares are trading 16.93% year to date (YTD), with the 12-month market performance down to -46.10% lower. It has a 12-month low price of $1.48 and touched a high of $4.56 over the same period. AAOI has an average intraday trading volume of 176.42K shares. The stock is trading above its simple moving averages at the SMA20, SMA50, and SMA200, as the current price level is off by 6.53%, 3.21%, and -5.65% respectively.
Institutional ownership of Applied Optoelectronics Inc. (NASDAQ: AAOI) shares accounts for 33.70% of the company’s 27.84M shares outstanding. Mutual fund holders own 12.60%, while other institutional holders and individual stakeholders account for 20.82% and 11.81% respectively.
It has a market capitalization of $65.31M and a beta (3y monthly) value of 1.40. The earnings-per-share (ttm) stands at -$2.20. Price movements for the stock have been influenced by the stock’s volatility, which stands at 6.76% over the week and 7.52% over the month.
Analysts forecast that Applied Optoelectronics Inc. (AAOI) will achieve an EPS of -$0.29 for the current quarter, -$0.24 for the next quarter and -$0.72 for 2023. The lowest estimate earnings-per-share for the quarter is -$0.3 while analysts give the company a high EPS estimate of -$0.27. Comparatively, EPS for the current quarter was -$0.2 a year ago. Earnings per share for the fiscal year are expected to increase by 24.70%, and 31.30% over the next financial year. EPS should grow at an annualized rate of 13.00% over the next five years, compared to -25.70% over the past 5-year period.
If you are looking to buy this stock, then you may note that the average analyst recommendation by 4 brokerage firm advisors rate Applied Optoelectronics Inc. (AAOI) as a “Moderate Buy” at a consensus score of 2.50. Specifically, 2 Wall Street analysts polled rate the stock as a buy, while 2 of the 4 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. Craig Hallum stated their Sell rating for the stock in a research note on February 25, 2022, with the firm’s price target at $7-$2.50. Needham was of a view on November 09, 2020 that the stock is Buy, while B. Riley Securities gave the stock Neutral rating on November 06, 2020, issuing a price target of $11- $9. Northland Capital on their part issued Market Perform rating on October 26, 2020.
