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

Applied Digital Co. (NASDAQ:APLD) shares shot up 3.7% during mid-day trading on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $7.87 and last traded at $7.84. 5,675,385 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 75% from the average session volume of 23,017,307 shares. The stock had previously closed at $7.56.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

Applied Digital Trading Up 4.6 %

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

Applied Digital (NASDAQ:APLD) last released its earnings results 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 net margin of 127.86% and a negative return on equity of 117.67%. The business had revenue of $63.87 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $62.41 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned ($0.05) earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 51.3% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that Applied Digital Co. will post -0.96 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Applied Digital

In related news, Director Richard N. Nottenburg sold 20,000 shares of the 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 sale, the director now directly owns 342,923 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,034,868.55. This represents a 5.51 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Wes Cummins sold 200,000 shares of the business’s 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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 3,875,955 shares in the company, valued at $35,658,786. This represents a 4.91 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 270,000 shares of company stock valued at $2,477,000 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 11.81% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Applied Digital

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Legal & General Group Plc increased its stake in Applied Digital by 16.9% in the 4th quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 167,660 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,281,000 after buying an additional 24,195 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. increased its stake in Applied Digital by 16.5% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 109,456 shares of the company’s stock valued at $836,000 after buying an additional 15,531 shares during the period. Cerity Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Applied Digital by 199.0% during the 4th quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 81,833 shares of the company’s stock worth $626,000 after purchasing an additional 54,465 shares during the last quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. increased its stake in shares of Applied Digital by 19.3% during the 4th quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 94,788 shares of the company’s stock worth $724,000 after purchasing an additional 15,304 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Envestnet Asset Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Applied Digital during the 4th quarter worth $83,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.