Van ECK Associates Corp Purchases 2,344,572 Shares of Applied Digital Co. (NASDAQ:APLD)

Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its position in Applied Digital Co. (NASDAQ:APLD) by 113.8% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 4,404,313 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,344,572 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp owned 1.98% of Applied Digital worth $33,649,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in APLD. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Applied Digital by 16.8% in the 4th quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 11,774 shares of the company’s stock worth $90,000 after purchasing an additional 1,692 shares during the period. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB lifted its position in shares of Applied Digital by 100.0% in the 4th 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. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in shares of Applied Digital by 8.8% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 37,411 shares of the company’s stock worth $309,000 after purchasing an additional 3,040 shares during the period. R Squared Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Applied Digital in the 4th quarter worth about $36,000. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company lifted its position in shares of Applied Digital by 14.4% in the 3rd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 43,064 shares of the company’s stock worth $355,000 after purchasing an additional 5,423 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 65.67% of the company’s stock.

Applied Digital Stock Up 15.2 %

Shares of Applied Digital stock opened at $9.11 on Friday. 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 capitalization of $2.03 billion, a PE ratio of -5.27 and a beta of 4.77. Applied Digital Co. has a 52-week low of $2.36 and a 52-week high of $11.25. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $8.43 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $7.25.

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, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.14) by $0.08. The business had revenue of $63.87 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $62.41 million. Applied Digital had a negative net margin of 127.86% and a negative return on equity of 117.67%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 51.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned ($0.05) earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Applied Digital Co. will post -0.96 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Richard N. Nottenburg sold 20,000 shares of the business’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 completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 342,923 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,034,868.55. The trade was 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 3,875,955 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $35,658,786. The trade was a 4.91 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 270,000 shares of company stock valued at $2,477,000. Insiders own 11.81% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

APLD has been the subject of several research analyst reports. 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 research report on Wednesday, January 15th. 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 target price 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. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and set a $11.00 price target on shares of Applied Digital in a research report on Wednesday, January 15th. Finally, 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 research report on Tuesday, February 4th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $12.11.

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.