Applied Digital (NASDAQ:APLD) Shares Gap Down – Should You Sell?

Applied Digital Co. (NASDAQ:APLD) gapped down before the market opened on Thursday . The stock had previously closed at $7.69, but opened at $7.29. Applied Digital shares last traded at $7.16, with a volume of 2,649,227 shares trading hands.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently commented on the company. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $11.00 target price on shares of Applied Digital in a research report on Monday, February 24th. Compass Point initiated coverage on shares of Applied Digital in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $10.00 price target on the stock. Cantor Fitzgerald lowered their price objective 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. HC Wainwright raised their target price 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. Finally, Northland Securities upped their target price on Applied Digital from $12.00 to $20.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $12.11.

Applied Digital Stock Performance

The company has a quick ratio of 0.77, a current ratio of 0.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.22. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -4.15 and a beta of 4.69. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $8.33 and a 200-day moving average price of $7.71.

Applied Digital (NASDAQ:APLD) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 14th. The company reported ($0.06) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.14) by $0.08. The company had revenue of $63.87 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $62.41 million. Applied Digital had a negative return on equity of 117.67% and a negative net margin of 127.86%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 51.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted ($0.05) earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Applied Digital Co. will post -0.96 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Richard N. Nottenburg sold 20,000 shares of the firm’s 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 transaction, the director now owns 342,923 shares in the company, valued at $3,034,868.55. This trade represents a 5.51 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 11.81% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Applied Digital

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Hood River Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Applied Digital by 10.7% in the 4th quarter. Hood River Capital Management LLC now owns 15,147,422 shares of the company’s stock worth $115,726,000 after buying an additional 1,464,854 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Applied Digital by 39.1% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 12,760,035 shares of the company’s stock worth $97,487,000 after acquiring an additional 3,587,619 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Applied Digital by 54.4% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,726,495 shares of the company’s stock valued at $36,117,000 after acquiring an additional 1,665,335 shares during the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted 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 purchasing an additional 2,344,572 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Pertento Partners LLP boosted its position in shares of Applied Digital by 49.0% during the 4th quarter. Pertento Partners LLP now owns 2,528,717 shares of the company’s stock valued at $19,319,000 after purchasing an additional 831,705 shares in the last quarter. 65.67% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Applied Digital Company Profile

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.