Applied Digital (NASDAQ:APLD) Shares Up 20% - Still a Buy?

Shares of Applied Digital Co. (NASDAQ:APLD - Get Free Report) rose 20% during trading on Friday . The company traded as high as $15.42 and last traded at $15.32. Approximately 90,491,211 shares were traded during mid-day trading, an increase of 143% from the average daily volume of 37,228,602 shares. The stock had previously closed at $12.77.

Analyst Ratings Changes

APLD has been the topic of a number of research reports. Roth Capital reissued a "buy" rating on shares of Applied Digital in a research note on Monday. Citigroup reaffirmed an "outperform" rating on shares of Applied Digital in a research note on Tuesday. HC Wainwright lifted their price target on shares of Applied Digital from $7.00 to $12.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a $10.00 price target on shares of Applied Digital in a research note on Monday. Finally, JMP Securities lifted their price target on shares of Applied Digital from $12.00 to $18.00 and gave the stock a "market outperform" rating in a research note on Tuesday. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and an average price target of $12.45.

Applied Digital Price Performance

The company's 50-day moving average price is $6.15 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $7.55. The company has a market cap of $3.11 billion, a P/E ratio of -8.01 and a beta of 6.09. The company has a current ratio of 0.77, a quick ratio of 0.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.22.

Applied Digital (NASDAQ:APLD - Get Free Report) last posted 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). The firm had revenue of $52.92 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $62.91 million. Applied Digital had a negative net margin of 127.86% and a negative return on equity of 117.67%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned ($0.24) earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Applied Digital Co. will post -0.96 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Applied Digital

In other Applied Digital news, Director Rachel H. Lee sold 24,212 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 21st. The shares were 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 in the company, valued at approximately $585,291. The trade was a 22.45% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 11.81% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Applied Digital

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Situational Awareness LP acquired a new stake in Applied Digital during the first quarter valued at approximately $22,680,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake 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 last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its stake 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 last quarter. Tidal Investments LLC lifted its position in shares of Applied Digital by 14,635.7% in the 4th quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 1,697,850 shares of the company's stock valued at $12,972,000 after acquiring an additional 1,686,328 shares in the last quarter. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Applied Digital in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $12,843,000. 65.67% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.