Applied Digital (NASDAQ:APLD) Shares Gap Up – Here’s What Happened

Shares of Applied Digital Co. (NASDAQ:APLD) gapped up before the market opened on Thursday . The stock had previously closed at $8.10, but opened at $8.59. Applied Digital shares last traded at $8.15, with a volume of 5,908,512 shares changing hands.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Cantor Fitzgerald lowered their target price on shares of Applied Digital from $15.00 to $14.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 15th. HC Wainwright boosted their price objective on shares of Applied Digital from $10.00 to $12.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 15th. Northland Securities boosted their price objective on shares of Applied Digital from $12.00 to $20.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. Compass Point started coverage on shares of Applied Digital in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $10.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and issued a $11.00 price objective on shares of Applied Digital in a report on Monday, February 24th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $12.11.

Applied Digital Stock Performance

The business’s 50-day moving average price is $8.41 and its 200-day moving average price is $7.62. 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 $1.78 billion, a P/E ratio of -4.62 and a beta of 4.77.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Richard N. Nottenburg sold 20,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $8.85, for a total value of $177,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 342,923 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,034,868.55. This represents a 5.51 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 11.81% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Applied Digital

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of APLD. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Applied Digital by 39.1% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 12,760,035 shares of the company’s stock worth $97,487,000 after purchasing an additional 3,587,619 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its position in shares of Applied Digital by 113.8% during the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 4,404,313 shares of the company’s stock valued at $33,649,000 after buying an additional 2,344,572 shares in the last quarter. Tidal Investments LLC raised its position in shares of Applied Digital by 14,635.7% during the 4th quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 1,697,850 shares of the company’s stock valued at $12,972,000 after buying an additional 1,686,328 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Applied Digital during the 4th quarter valued at about $12,843,000. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Applied Digital by 54.4% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,726,495 shares of the company’s stock valued at $36,117,000 after buying an additional 1,665,335 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 65.67% of the company’s stock.

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.