Smart Money Nailed Applied Optoelectronics Inc (AAOI) As Shares Soar Following Big Guidance Surprise For Investors

Two of the largest investors among those with positions in the company as of March 31 were Phillip Hempleman‘s Ardsley Partners, and Selz Capital, which is managed by Bernard Selz. Their respective holdings were 662,900 shares valued at $9.20 million, which marked a 56% increase from the last quarter for Ardsley, and 400,000 shares valued at $5.55 million, a holding that was just initiated in the first quarter by Selz. Another bullish move on the company was the initiation of a position of call options on Applied Optoelectronics Inc (NASDAQ:AAOI) by Matthew Mark‘s Jet Capital Investors during the March quarter. The holding was valued at $107.16 million and was underlying 4.75 million shares.

As far as the insider activity for Applied Optoelectronics Inc (NASDAQ:AAOI) is concerned, there have been no insider purchases so far this year, but a few insider sales have been detected by us, the foremost of them being by Chung-Yao Li, who disposed of some 12,800 shares this year, and Shua-Hua Yeh, who sold 10,000 shares during the same time period. However, readers should bear in mind that insider sales are a much weaker signal than insider purchases, since they could occur due to a much larger variety of reasons, and profit-taking could be just one of them, as opposed to a glum outlook by the company’s management.

Extremely bullish smart money followed by a rapid improvement in performance leads us to believe it’s not too late to get in on Applied Optoelectronics, and we recommend a buy.

Disclosure: None