Applied Digital (NASDAQ:APLD) Shares Up 7.9% – Here’s What Happened

Applied Digital Co. (NASDAQ:APLD)’s share price shot up 7.9% on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $9.92 and last traded at $9.83. 13,601,290 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 43% from the average session volume of 23,763,803 shares. The stock had previously closed at $9.11.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently issued reports on APLD. HC Wainwright lifted their price objective on shares of Applied Digital from $10.00 to $12.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 15th. Northland Securities lifted their price objective 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. Compass Point began coverage on shares of Applied Digital in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. They set a “buy” rating and a $10.00 price objective on the stock. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and set a $11.00 price objective on shares of Applied Digital in a report on Wednesday, January 15th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald cut their price objective 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. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $12.11.

Applied Digital Stock Up 5.7 %

The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $8.39 and its 200-day simple moving average is $7.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.22, a current ratio of 0.77 and a quick ratio of 0.77. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.15 billion, a PE ratio of -5.57 and a beta of 4.77.

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 business had revenue of $63.87 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned ($0.05) earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that Applied Digital Co. will post -0.96 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Richard N. Nottenburg sold 20,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction 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 sale, 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 sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Wes Cummins sold 200,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction 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 directly owns 3,875,955 shares in the company, valued at $35,658,786. This trade represents a 4.91 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 270,000 shares of company stock valued at $2,477,000 over the last ninety days. 11.81% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in APLD. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Applied Digital by 39.1% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 12,760,035 shares of the company’s stock valued at $97,487,000 after purchasing an additional 3,587,619 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its position in Applied Digital by 113.8% during the fourth 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 during the period. Tidal Investments LLC lifted its position in Applied Digital by 14,635.7% during the fourth quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 1,697,850 shares of the company’s stock valued at $12,972,000 after purchasing an additional 1,686,328 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. acquired a new position in Applied Digital during the fourth quarter valued at $12,843,000. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Applied Digital by 54.4% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,726,495 shares of the company’s stock valued at $36,117,000 after purchasing an additional 1,665,335 shares during the period. 65.67% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.