Short Interest in Applied Digital Co. (NASDAQ:APLD) Increases By 14.7%

Applied Digital Co. (NASDAQ:APLD) was the recipient of a large growth in short interest during the month of January. As of January 15th, there was short interest totalling 49,100,000 shares, a growth of 14.7% from the December 31st total of 42,790,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 15,910,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.1 days. Approximately 30.8% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Insider Activity

In other Applied Digital news, CEO Wes Cummins sold 200,000 shares of Applied Digital stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $9.20, for a total value of $1,840,000.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 3,875,955 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $35,658,786. The trade was a 4.91 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Richard N. Nottenburg sold 50,000 shares of the 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 $460,000.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 334,317 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,075,716.40. This represents a 13.01 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 289,369 shares of company stock valued at $2,622,461 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 11.81% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Applied Digital

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Applied Digital by 36.5% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 899,293 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,419,000 after buying an additional 240,554 shares during the last quarter. Quadrature Capital Ltd bought a new position in Applied Digital during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $545,000. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC increased its stake in Applied Digital by 37.6% in the 4th quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 1,002,090 shares of the company’s stock worth $7,656,000 after purchasing an additional 273,666 shares during the period. Barclays PLC lifted its position in Applied Digital by 736.8% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 486,577 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,014,000 after purchasing an additional 428,428 shares during the last quarter. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC lifted its position in Applied Digital by 414.5% in the fourth quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 265,792 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,031,000 after purchasing an additional 214,133 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 65.67% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently commented on APLD shares. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $11.00 price target on shares of Applied Digital in a research report on Wednesday, January 15th. Compass Point began coverage on shares of Applied Digital in a research report on Tuesday. They set a “buy” rating and a $10.00 target price for the company. Cantor Fitzgerald reduced 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 note on Wednesday, January 15th. Craig Hallum raised 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 Thursday, October 10th. Finally, Roth Mkm reissued a “buy” rating and set a $10.00 target price on shares of Applied Digital in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $11.13.

Applied Digital Price Performance

Shares of APLD stock traded down $0.26 during trading on Friday, hitting $7.12. The company had a trading volume of 23,515,508 shares, compared to its average volume of 22,815,720. The company has a quick ratio of 0.77, a current ratio of 0.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.22. Applied Digital has a 52 week low of $2.36 and a 52 week high of $11.25. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -4.12 and a beta of 4.78. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $8.86 and its two-hundred day moving average is $7.09.

Applied Digital (NASDAQ:APLD) last announced 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. Applied Digital had a negative net margin of 127.86% and a negative return on equity of 117.67%. The company had revenue of $63.87 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $62.41 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned ($0.05) earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 51.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts predict that Applied Digital will post -0.96 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.