Applied Digital (NASDAQ:APLD) Shares Up 7.8% - What's Next?

Key Points

• Applied Digital's stock experienced a significant rise of 7.8%, reaching a last traded price of $37.76 on Wednesday, with a notable trading volume increase of 42% compared to its average.
• Analysts have mixed views on the stock, with Northland Securities raising its price target to $40 and maintaining an "outperform" rating, while others have varied ratings from "Strong Buy" to "Sell."
• The company reported quarterly earnings with an EPS of ($0.03), better than the consensus estimate, but fell short on revenue expectations, generating $38.01 million against a $52.25 million estimate.

Applied Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:APLD - Get Free Report)'s stock price rose 7.8% during mid-day trading on Wednesday . The stock traded as high as $40.08 and last traded at $37.76. Approximately 52,057,247 shares traded hands during trading, an increase of 42% from the average daily volume of 36,773,070 shares. The stock had previously closed at $35.04.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have weighed in on APLD shares. Northland Securities upped their price objective on shares of Applied Digital to $40.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, October 10th. Craig Hallum increased their price objective on shares of Applied Digital from $12.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday, August 18th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a "sell (d-)" rating on shares of Applied Digital in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Citigroup reissued an "outperform" rating on shares of Applied Digital in a research report on Thursday, October 9th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised shares of Applied Digital from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Saturday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have given a Buy rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Applied Digital has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $22.10.

Applied Digital Price Performance

The company has a quick ratio of 0.65, a current ratio of 0.65 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29. The business's 50 day simple moving average is $19.74 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $12.24. The stock has a market capitalization of $10.56 billion, a P/E ratio of -33.42 and a beta of 6.77.

Applied Digital (NASDAQ:APLD - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 9th. The company reported ($0.03) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.11) by $0.08. The business had revenue of $38.01 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $52.25 million. Applied Digital had a negative net margin of 111.29% and a negative return on equity of 37.14%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 84.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted ($0.15) earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Applied Digital Corporation will post -0.96 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Applied Digital

In other news, CFO Mohammad Saidal Lavanw Mohmand sold 75,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $15.26, for a total value of $1,144,500.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 201,800 shares in the company, valued at $3,079,468. This represents a 27.10% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director Richard N. Nottenburg sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $15.26, for a total transaction of $305,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 297,987 shares of the company's stock, valued at $4,547,281.62. This represents a 6.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 506,250 shares of company stock valued at $7,713,675 in the last three months. 9.50% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Applied Digital

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Atlantic Union Bankshares Corp purchased a new position in shares of Applied Digital during the second quarter valued at $25,000. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. acquired a new position in Applied Digital in the second quarter valued at approximately $26,000. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. acquired a new position in Applied Digital in the first quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Applied Digital by 113.3% in the first quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 6,667 shares of the company's stock valued at $37,000 after buying an additional 3,542 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ameriflex Group Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Applied Digital during the second quarter worth approximately $42,000. 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.

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