What happened
Shares of Applied Optoelectronics (AAOI +3.41%) are on fire in Wednesday's trading session, rising 17.7% as of 2:45 p.m. EST. Tuesday night's third-quarter report beat Wall Street's estimates across the board, making it easy to embrace the stock on Wednesday.
So what
The maker of optical products, from low-level components to turnkey networking systems, saw top-line revenues rise 27% year over year, landing at $88.9 million. The growth spurt was driven by strong orders from data center and cable TV customers.
On the bottom line, adjusted earnings surged 184% higher, stopping at $1.08 per diluted share. The revenue gains were amplified by the mathematical fact that the year-ago period was a low point in AOI's recent history where fixed costs nearly zeroed out the bottom line entirely.
Analysts would have settled for earnings of $1.02 per share on sales near $88.5 million. Not a blowout, but still a significant surprise.
Image source: Getty Images.
Now what
Looking ahead, AOI's management expects fourth-quarter sales to hold almost completely steady year over year at roughly $85.5 million. Earnings should rise just 5% higher to $0.88 per share.
Here, your average analyst had been expecting earnings of $0.96 per share on sales of approximately $83.6 million. That type of mixed message doesn't always sit well with investors, often triggering a price cut even if the reported results came in strong.
Of course, investors approached AOI's report with caution. At Tuesday's market close, share prices had fallen a hair-raising 63% from early August's 52-week highs due to long-term worries about the company losing major contracts to rivals. This report didn't exactly prove those fears wrong, but management did provide a few soothing quotes about the competitive landscape.
"We remain a major supplier to all of our major customers for their long-reach transceiver needs and intra-data center applications," said CFO and chief strategy officer Stefan Murry. "We remain engaged with all those customers. We have orders from all the major customers that we have."
In a broader sense, the fiber-optic networking industry is knee deep in a shift toward next-generation components with higher data transfer rates, making every supplier's results lumpy and unpredictable until the new standards have been set. I expect Applied Optoelectronics to rise above its near-term challenges as the market steps up to this new product generation in support of 5G wireless networks.
