APPLIED OPTOELECTRONICS, INC.·4

May 19, 7:04 PM ET

Chang Hung-Lun (Fred) 4

Research Summary

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Updated

Applied Optoelectronics (AAOI) SVP Fred Chang Receives Award, Sells Shares

What Happened
Fred Chang (Senior Vice President and North America General Manager) received 224,199 shares on 2026-05-15 as the settlement of performance-based restricted stock units (RSUs) for the 2023–2026 period (earned at maximum performance). On 2026-05-19, 27,297 of those shares were withheld to satisfy tax obligations (valued at $190.36/share, $5,196,257) and an additional 33,630 shares were sold in the open market at $173.26/share for $5,826,734. Net from the award and disposals, Chang added 163,272 shares to his holdings (224,199 awarded minus 60,927 disposed).

Key Details

  • Transactions: Award (A) 224,199 shares on 2026-05-15; Tax withholding (F) 27,297 shares @ $190.36 on 2026-05-19; Open-market sale (S) 33,630 shares @ $173.26 on 2026-05-19.
  • Proceeds/values: Withheld shares valued at ~$5.20M; open-market sale proceeds ~$5.83M; combined ~$11.02M.
  • Net change from these transactions: +163,272 shares retained after withholding and sale.
  • Footnotes: F1 — award = performance-vesting RSUs for 2023–2026 earned at maximum performance. F2 — shares withheld to satisfy tax withholding obligations.
  • Filing/timeliness: Form 4 filed 2026-05-19 covering the 5/15 award and 5/19 dispositions; filing is within the standard Form 4 reporting window (timely).

Context

  • This was a settlement of performance RSUs, not an option exercise. The withholding (F) is a routine action to meet tax liabilities on vested RSUs; the additional open-market sale (S) is common for tax or liquidity reasons.
  • Sales following an RSU settlement do not necessarily signal negative insider sentiment; Chang still retained a substantial net number of shares (163,272) from the award.
  • Purchases by insiders are typically more informative about confidence; this filing mainly documents an award and routine disposals tied to vesting.