Applied Digital (NASDAQ:APLD) Trading Up 3.7% – Here’s What Happened

Applied Digital Co. (NASDAQ:APLD)’s share price rose 3.7% on Thursday . The company traded as high as $7.87 and last traded at $7.84. Approximately 5,675,385 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 75% from the average daily volume of 23,017,307 shares. The stock had previously closed at $7.56.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

APLD has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Compass Point initiated coverage on shares of Applied Digital in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $10.00 price objective for the company. Cantor Fitzgerald dropped their target price on shares of Applied Digital from $15.00 to $14.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 15th. Northland Securities increased their target price on shares of Applied Digital from $12.00 to $20.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $11.00 target price on shares of Applied Digital in a research report on Wednesday, January 15th. Finally, HC Wainwright increased their target price on shares of Applied Digital from $10.00 to $12.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 15th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $12.11.

Applied Digital Stock Up 4.6 %

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.22, a quick ratio of 0.77 and a current ratio of 0.77. The stock has a market cap of $1.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -4.57 and a beta of 4.77. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $8.47 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $7.24.

Applied Digital (NASDAQ:APLD) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, January 14th. The company reported ($0.06) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.14) by $0.08. The company had revenue of $63.87 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $62.41 million. Applied Digital had a negative net margin of 127.86% and a negative return on equity of 117.67%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 51.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned ($0.05) EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Applied Digital Co. will post -0.96 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Wes Cummins sold 200,000 shares of Applied Digital stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 27th. The shares were 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $35,658,786. This trade represents a 4.91 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Richard N. Nottenburg sold 20,000 shares of Applied Digital stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $8.85, for a total transaction of $177,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 342,923 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,034,868.55. The trade was a 5.51 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 270,000 shares of company stock valued at $2,477,000. 11.81% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Applied Digital

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB boosted its position in Applied Digital by 100.0% during the fourth quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB now owns 4,000 shares of the company’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 2,000 shares during the period. R Squared Ltd bought a new position in Applied Digital during the fourth quarter worth $36,000. US Bancorp DE bought a new stake in shares of Applied Digital in the fourth quarter valued at about $37,000. Jones Financial Companies Lllp bought a new stake in shares of Applied Digital in the fourth quarter valued at about $39,000. Finally, Spire Wealth Management bought a new stake in shares of Applied Digital in the fourth quarter valued at about $43,000. 65.67% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.