Applied Optoelectronics Inc. (NASDAQ: AAOI) stock jumped 0.41% on Monday to $9.88 against a previous-day closing price of $9.84. With 3.16 million shares changed hands, the volume of the stock remained lighter than its average volume of 4.45 million shares. During the session, the Communication Equipment company that operates in wider Technology sector, reached to the highest price of $10.23 whereas the lowest price it dropped to was $9.63. The 52-week range on AAOI shows that it touched its highest point at $16.26 and its lowest point at $1.60 during that stretch. It currently has a 1-year price target of $15.75. Beta for the stock currently stands at 1.72.
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Price Performance and Earnings:
Stock performance is one of the indicators that investors use to determine whether they will profit from a stock. The price performance of AAOI was down-trending over the past week, with a drop of -15.19%, but this was down by -23.59% over a month. Three-month performance surged to 103.71% while six-month performance rose 318.64%. The stock gained 295.20% in the past year, while it has gained 422.75% so far this year. A look at the trailing 12-month EPS for AAOI yields -2.41 with Next year EPS estimates of 0.40. For the next quarter, that number is -0.05. This implies an EPS growth rate of -18.50% for this year and 176.90% for next year. EPS is expected to grow by 13.00% annually over the next five years; however, over the past five years, the company experienced an annual growth rate of -21.90%.
Float and Shares Shorts:
At present, 37.03 million AAOI shares are outstanding with a float of 35.42 million shares on hand for trading. On Aug 30, 2023, short shares totaled 5.92 million, which was 18.43% higher than short shares on Jul 30, 2023. In addition to Dr. Chih-Hsiang Lin Ph.D. as the firm’s Founder, Chairman, Pres & CEO, Dr. Stefan J. Murry serves as its CFO & Chief Strategy Officer.
Institutional Ownership:
Through their ownership of 30.67% of AAOI’s outstanding shares, institutional investors have minority control over the company. Other institutions hold 23.65% of AAOI, in contrast to 16.63% held by mutual funds. Shares owned by individuals account for 13.46%. As the largest shareholder in AAOI with 3.95% of the stake, Columbia Management Investment Ad holds 1,267,740 shares worth 1,267,740. A second-largest stockholder of AAOI, Portolan Capital Management LLC, holds 1,214,989 shares, controlling over 3.78% of the firm’s shares. The Vanguard Group, Inc. is the third largest shareholder in AAOI, holding 1,200,210 shares or 3.74% stake. With a 2.58% stake in AAOI, the Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF is the largest stakeholder. A total of 828,961 shares are owned by the mutual fund manager. The Columbia Small Cap Value Fund I, which owns about 2.02% of AAOI stock, is the second-largest Mutual Fund holder. It holds 649,997 shares valued at 8.95 million. Fidelity Strategic Advisers Small holds 2.00% of the stake in AAOI, owning 641,538 shares worth 8.83 million.
An Overview of Recent Financials:
Understanding a company as a customer does not mean you will understand it as an investor. The wise investor uses quantitative research to analyze metrics such as revenue, net income, and earnings. In its fiscal quarter reported on Jun 29, 2023, AAOI reported revenue of $52.30M and operating income of -$12.81M. The EBITDA in the recently reported quarter was -$6.87M and diluted EPS was -$0.52.
Analysts Ratings:
Reading analyst opinions is an effective way to decide where to invest, and there are several opinions available for AAOI since 0 analysts follow the stock currently. In the same way, a target price assigned to a stock can also reveal much about its potential. With AAOI analysts setting a high price target of $20.00 and a low target of $11.50, the average target price over the next 12 months is $15.75. Based on these targets, AAOI could surge 102.43% to reach the target high and rise by 16.4% to reach the target low. Reaching the average price target will result in a growth of 59.41% from current levels.
EPS: Estimates vs Actual
It is also common to use earnings estimates to evaluate a firm’s growth potential and to determine trading strategy.
Summary of Insider Activity:
Insiders traded AAOI stock several times over the past three months with 14 Buys and 38 Sells. In these transactions, 1,048,253 shares were bought while 274,685 shares were sold. The number of buy transactions has increased to 15 while that of sell transactions has risen to 121 over the past year. The total number of shares bought during that period was 1,092,696 while 509,045 shares were sold.
