Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI)
Shares of the moderately sized ($1.1 billion market cap) fiber optics company named Applied Optoelectronics crumbled nearly 20% in the after-market trading on Thursday, October 12th, 2017, after the company pre-announced earnings which will fall well short from what analysts were expecting.
The company mainly serves the home-fiber and cable broadband market. Shares, which wound up closing down -$2.60 on the day closing at $58.84 crumbled nearly 20% lower closing at $47.15 or down 19.87% as of the close in after-hours trading at 8 pm EDT.
Shares have traded in a 52-week range from a low of $18.85 to a high of $103.41. It is clear and then that shares will be trading precipitously much closer to their 52-week lows after this recent development.
The Awful Earnings Pre-Announcement
The company is stating that they now expect revenues to come in somewhere around $88.5 million dollars, which is well below the $111.6 million dollars that analysts had been expecting.
Profit is now projected to come in somewhere between $1.04 and $1.09 per share. This compares with earnings of $1.31 per share just a year ago.
Looking at the daily chart above, it is easy to see that shares get down after their earnings report in July, and will be doing the same thing all be before the earnings actually come out when she has open for trading tomorrow morning. The 50 day moving average (in yellow dots), has served as resistance since that last gap down.
The above price chart is the 5 minute intervals in the after-hours session on Thursday. Immediately after the pre-announcement was released shares gapped lower and never recovered.
Company Comments
Thompson Lin, Applied Optoelectronics’ chief executive, said this in a prepared press release:
Our preliminary results for the third quarter fell short of prior estimates and were negatively impacted by lower-than-expected sales to one of our large data-center customers. Despite this shortfall, we maintained a strong gross-margin profile in the quarter, and continued to experience solid demand with our other top data-center customers .
He added,
Although we are disappointed with these preliminary results, we continue to feel good about our leadership position in advanced optics and remain optimistic based on the customer traction we are seeing with our 100G products, especially our 100G CWDM transceivers.
Applied Optoelectronics Profile
Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. designs, manufactures, and sells fiber-optic networking products primarily for Internet data center, cable television (CATV), and fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) networking end-markets.
It offers optical modules, lasers, transmitters and transceivers, and turn-key equipment, as well as headend, node, and distribution equipment. The company sells its products to Internet data center operators, CATV and telecommunications equipment manufacturers, and Internet service providers through its direct and indirect sales channels worldwide.
Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. was founded in 1997 and is headquartered in Sugar Land, Texas.