{"id":163197,"date":"2026-09-05T23:49:08","date_gmt":"2026-09-05T23:49:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/163197\/"},"modified":"2026-09-05T23:49:08","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T23:49:08","slug":"these-3-ai-stocks-are-way-off-their-highs-is-the-pullback-a-buying-opportunity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/163197\/","title":{"rendered":"These 3 AI Stocks Are Way Off Their Highs. Is the Pullback a Buying Opportunity?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Vertiv, Applied Optoelectronics, and Innodata entered September well below their 2026 highs despite strong operating growth. The pullbacks do not make them interchangeable bargains. Vertiv Holdings Co. (NYSE:VRT<\/a>) sells power and cooling, Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI<\/a>) supplies optical transceivers, and Innodata Inc. (NASDAQ:INOD<\/a>) provides data engineering and model-evaluation services. <\/p>\n

Vertiv’s second-quarter sales rose 24% to $3.27 billion, adjusted operating margin expanded 410 basis points to 22.6%, and adjusted free cash flow reached $925 million. The bull case is rising power and thermal content per AI rack. The bear case is project timing, supply congestion, and expectations built around long-duration demand. Insider Monkey counted 112 hedge funds holding Vertiv Holdings Co. (NYSE:VRT) in Q2, up from 96 in Q1. Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital reported 2,686,683 shares, 0.5% more sequentially. <\/p>\n

\"These<\/a> These 3 AI Stocks Are Way Off Their Highs. Is the Pullback a Buying Opportunity? <\/p>\n

Applied Optoelectronics posted record revenue of $191.9 million, while 800G volume more than doubled from Q1. Management expects 800G and 1.6-terabit demand to exceed production capacity through mid-2027. That capacity ramp is the bull case; a 27.7% GAAP gross margin, a $22.8 million GAAP loss, customer concentration, and execution are the bear case. Fifty-four hedge funds held Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI), down from 55. Value Aligned Research disclosed 1,595,124 shares, 26% more sequentially. <\/p>\n

Innodata’s revenue grew 58% to $92.1 million and adjusted EBITDA rose 92% to $25.4 million. Its reusable data sets and evaluation work can expand margins, but large-customer dependence and rapidly changing model-training methods create risk. Twenty-five hedge funds held Innodata Inc. (NASDAQ:INOD), up from 20. Mitch Rubin’s RiverPark Advisors reported 2,042 shares, 18% more than in Q1. <\/p>\n

AAOI’s August 14 short-interest settlement showed 10,421,985 shares sold short, equal to 12.81% of float, with 0.69 days to cover..The elevated short-float percentage signals substantial bearish positioning, while the low days-to-cover ratio suggests shorts could cover relatively quickly at recent trading volumes.Vertiv has the strongest cash generation, AAOI the sharpest capacity upside, and Innodata the lightest physical footprint. A buying opportunity exists only if margins, customer diversification, and cash conversion justify each stock’s remaining expectations. The risks also differ in timing. Vertiv can lose on delayed data-center construction, AAOI can lose during the manufacturing ramp, and Innodata can lose when a major customer changes vendors or training methods. Investors should therefore avoid using distance from a high as valuation analysis. Order conversion, gross-margin durability, customer concentration, and diluted share growth are the comparable checkpoints. The pullback improves entry prices, but only operating evidence can establish value. Balance-sheet resilience matters most when capacity plans meet a weaker cycle. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Vertiv, Applied Optoelectronics, and Innodata entered September well below their 2026 highs despite strong operating growth. The pullbacks…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":160207,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[905,79277,24,3217,25,79095,829,66540,34286,79278,3527,27669,75530,3758,18909,53380],"class_list":["post-163197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ai","tag-905","tag-aaoi","tag-ai","tag-applied-optoelectronics","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-gaap","tag-inc","tag-innodata","tag-innodata-inc","tag-inod","tag-nyse","tag-q1","tag-september","tag-vertiv","tag-vertiv-holdings-co","tag-vrt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=163197"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163197\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/160207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=163197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=163197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=163197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}