Optics stocks climbed through Friday's midday session, with Applied Optoelectronics up about 5%, Lumentum up about 5%, Corning up roughly 4.5%, and Coherent up roughly 1.3%, building on recent earnings strength with no confirmed same-day catalyst. Lumentum reported Q4 revenue of $1.01 billion, up 109% year over year, on August 11, and guided Q1 FY27 revenue to $1.225 billion to $1.275 billion with EPS of $4.05 to $4.35, hitting its target operating model more than a quarter ahead of schedule. Coherent followed on August 12 with revenue of $2.05 billion, up 33.7% year over year, and non-GAAP EPS of $1.74, while Applied Optoelectronics posted a fifth consecutive quarter of record revenue on August 6, with CEO Thompson Lin telling investors demand will continue to outpace production capacity through mid-2027. Broadcom dropped roughly 4.7% even as the S&P 500 sat near a record high, with Wolfe Research flagging its $30 billion in residual value guarantees as a longer-term AI oversupply risk, though Wolfe does not expect supply to exceed demand through 2028. Applied Optoelectronics is up 465% and Lumentum 632% over one year, making position sizing the primary risk for investors entering these names now.
