Applied Digital (NASDAQ:APLD) Shares Gap Up - Here's Why

Applied Digital Co. (NASDAQ:APLD - Get Free Report)'s stock price gapped up before the market opened on Monday . The stock had previously closed at $13.86, but opened at $14.52. Applied Digital shares last traded at $14.02, with a volume of 21,503,318 shares.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

APLD has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. JMP Securities increased their price objective on Applied Digital from $12.00 to $18.00 and gave the company a "market outperform" rating in a report on Tuesday, June 3rd. Compass Point reiterated a "neutral" rating and issued a $13.00 price target (up previously from $10.00) on shares of Applied Digital in a research note on Monday. Citizens Jmp upgraded shares of Applied Digital to a "strong-buy" rating and set a $12.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 22nd. B. Riley raised their target price on shares of Applied Digital from $8.00 to $15.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 4th. Finally, Craig Hallum lifted their price target on Applied Digital from $10.00 to $12.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, June 3rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Buy" and an average price target of $12.73.

Applied Digital Price Performance

The company has a current ratio of 0.77, a quick ratio of 0.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.22. The company has a 50 day moving average of $6.56 and a 200-day moving average of $7.61. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.82 billion, a P/E ratio of -7.23 and a beta of 6.08.

Applied Digital (NASDAQ:APLD - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Monday, April 14th. The company reported ($0.16) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.11) by ($0.05). Applied Digital had a negative net margin of 127.86% and a negative return on equity of 117.67%. The business had revenue of $52.92 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $62.91 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted ($0.24) EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Applied Digital Co. will post -0.96 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Rachel H. Lee sold 24,212 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $7.00, for a total transaction of $169,484.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 83,613 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $585,291. This represents a 22.45% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 11.81% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of APLD. Rhumbline Advisers increased its holdings in Applied Digital by 7.8% in the 1st quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 279,191 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,569,000 after buying an additional 20,299 shares during the period. Strs Ohio acquired a new stake in shares of Applied Digital during the 1st quarter worth approximately $71,000. Wealth Management Associates Inc. increased its stake in Applied Digital by 25.5% in the first quarter. Wealth Management Associates Inc. now owns 95,660 shares of the company's stock valued at $538,000 after acquiring an additional 19,450 shares during the last quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. raised its position in Applied Digital by 113.3% during the first quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 6,667 shares of the company's stock valued at $37,000 after purchasing an additional 3,542 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Arete Wealth Advisors LLC raised its position in Applied Digital by 117.0% during the first quarter. Arete Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,065,432 shares of the company's stock valued at $5,988,000 after purchasing an additional 574,485 shares in the last quarter. 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.