Short Interest in Applied Digital Co. (NASDAQ:APLD) Increases By 14.7%

Applied Digital Co. (NASDAQ:APLD) was the target of a large increase in short interest during the month of January. As of January 15th, there was short interest totalling 49,100,000 shares, an increase of 14.7% from the December 31st total of 42,790,000 shares. Currently, 30.8% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 15,910,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.1 days.

Applied Digital Stock Down 3.5 %

Shares of APLD traded down $0.26 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $7.12. The stock had a trading volume of 23,515,508 shares, compared to its average volume of 22,815,720. Applied Digital has a 1-year low of $2.36 and a 1-year high of $11.25. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.59 billion, a P/E ratio of -4.12 and a beta of 4.78. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $8.86 and a 200-day simple moving average of $7.09. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.22, a current ratio of 0.77 and a quick ratio of 0.77.

Applied Digital (NASDAQ:APLD) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 14th. The company reported ($0.06) EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.14) by $0.08. Applied Digital had a negative return on equity of 117.67% and a negative net margin of 127.86%. The firm had revenue of $63.87 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $62.41 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted ($0.05) earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 51.3% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts predict that Applied Digital will post -0.96 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Applied Digital

In other Applied Digital news, Director Richard N. Nottenburg sold 19,369 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $7.51, for a total value of $145,461.19. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 384,317 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,886,220.67. This represents a 4.80 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Wes Cummins sold 200,000 shares of Applied Digital stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $9.20, for a total transaction of $1,840,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 3,875,955 shares in the company, valued at approximately $35,658,786. This trade represents a 4.91 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 289,369 shares of company stock valued at $2,622,461 in the last quarter. Insiders own 11.81% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. New York State Common Retirement Fund increased its holdings in Applied Digital by 75.0% during the 4th quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 40,819 shares of the company’s stock worth $312,000 after purchasing an additional 17,500 shares in the last quarter. Atria Wealth Solutions Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Applied Digital during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $149,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in Applied Digital by 44.2% during the fourth quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 14,542 shares of the company’s stock worth $111,000 after buying an additional 4,459 shares in the last quarter. Rhumbline Advisers raised its position in Applied Digital by 68.7% in the 4th quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 258,892 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,978,000 after buying an additional 105,428 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vontobel Holding Ltd. lifted its stake in Applied Digital by 9.8% during the 4th quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. now owns 16,735 shares of the company’s stock valued at $128,000 after acquiring an additional 1,500 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 65.67% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

APLD has been the topic of several recent research reports. Craig Hallum lifted their target price on Applied Digital from $10.00 to $12.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Lake Street Capital upped their target price on Applied Digital from $7.00 to $11.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Roth Mkm restated a “buy” rating and set a $10.00 price target on shares of Applied Digital in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Cantor Fitzgerald reduced their price objective on shares of Applied Digital from $15.00 to $14.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and set a $11.00 target price on shares of Applied Digital in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, According to MarketBeat, Applied Digital presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $11.13.

About Applied Digital

Applied Digital Corporation designs, develops, and operates datacenters in North America. Its datacenters provide digital infrastructure solutions to the high-performance computing industry. The company also provides artificial intelligence cloud services, high performance computing datacenter hosting, and crypto datacenter hosting services.