Applied Digital (NASDAQ:APLD) Trading Down 3.4% After Insider Selling

Key Points

• Applied Digital (NASDAQ: APLD) stock dropped 3.4% in mid-day trading, with a significant decline in trading volume at approximately 5.97 million shares.
• Wall Street analysts have a generally positive outlook on Applied Digital, with an average target price of $15.64 and multiple recent upgrades to "buy" ratings.
• The company's latest earnings report showed a negative EPS of ($0.12) with revenue growth of 41.3% year-over-year, though it fell short of analyst expectations.

Shares of Applied Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:APLD - Get Free Report) fell 3.4% during mid-day trading on Friday following insider selling activity. The company traded as low as $13.72 and last traded at $13.84. 5,969,133 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 84% from the average session volume of 37,002,414 shares. The stock had previously closed at $14.33.

Specifically, CEO Wes Cummins sold 400,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $15.26, for a total value of $6,104,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 2,659,379 shares in the company, valued at $40,582,123.54. The trade was a 13.07% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Mohammad Saidal Lavanw Mohmand sold 75,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $15.26, for a total transaction of $1,144,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 201,800 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,079,468. The trade was a 27.10% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In related news, Director Richard N. Nottenburg sold 20,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $15.26, for a total value of $305,200.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 297,987 shares in the company, valued at $4,547,281.62. The trade was a 6.29% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on APLD. JMP Securities upped 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, June 3rd. HC Wainwright upped their target price on shares of Applied Digital from $15.00 to $20.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Monday, August 25th. Lake Street Capital upped their target price on shares of Applied Digital from $14.00 to $18.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Compass Point upgraded shares of Applied Digital from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $13.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Finally, Craig Hallum upped their target price on shares of Applied Digital from $12.00 to $23.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Monday, August 18th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and twelve have issued a Buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Buy" and a consensus price target of $15.64.

Applied Digital Stock Down 3.1%

The stock has a market cap of $3.63 billion, a PE ratio of -12.74 and a beta of 6.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.36, a quick ratio of 0.77 and a current ratio of 0.77. The company's 50-day moving average price is $12.82 and its 200 day moving average price is $9.21.

Applied Digital (NASDAQ:APLD - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The company reported ($0.12) EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of ($0.12). Applied Digital had a negative net margin of 107.22% and a negative return on equity of 50.03%. The firm had revenue of $38.01 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $42.86 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned ($0.14) EPS. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 41.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that Applied Digital Corporation will post -0.96 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Applied Digital

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in APLD. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its holdings in Applied Digital by 98.2% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 76,250 shares of the company's stock worth $583,000 after acquiring an additional 37,783 shares in the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its holdings in Applied Digital by 54.1% in the 4th quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 66,349 shares of the company's stock worth $507,000 after acquiring an additional 23,285 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp increased its holdings in Applied Digital by 81.9% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,793,700 shares of the company's stock worth $13,704,000 after acquiring an additional 807,681 shares in the last quarter. Algert Global LLC purchased a new stake in Applied Digital in the 4th quarter worth approximately $324,000. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its holdings in Applied Digital by 40.6% in the 4th quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 61,629 shares of the company's stock worth $471,000 after acquiring an additional 17,794 shares in the last quarter. 65.67% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other 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.