Applied Digital (NASDAQ:APLD) Trading 2.3% Higher on Analyst Upgrade

Key Points

• Applied Digital Corporation shares rose 2.3% after HC Wainwright upgraded the stock's price target from $15.00 to $20.00, maintaining a "buy" rating on the stock.
• Institutional investors significantly increased their stakes, with BNP Paribas Financial Markets boosting its ownership by 24,356.8% in the second quarter, now holding over 5.2 million shares of the company.
• The company's revenue grew 41.3% year-over-year, though it reported a loss of $0.12 earnings per share, matching analysts' consensus estimates.

Applied Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:APLD - Get Free Report) traded up 2.3% on Tuesday after HC Wainwright raised their price target on the stock from $15.00 to $20.00. HC Wainwright currently has a buy rating on the stock. Applied Digital traded as high as $16.45 and last traded at $16.31. 7,402,830 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 80% from the average session volume of 37,582,770 shares. The stock had previously closed at $15.95.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. B. Riley upped their price objective on Applied Digital from $8.00 to $15.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 4th. Lake Street Capital increased their price objective on Applied Digital from $14.00 to $18.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Citigroup reaffirmed an "outperform" rating on shares of Applied Digital in a report on Tuesday, June 3rd. Needham & Company LLC raised their target price on Applied Digital from $12.00 to $16.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Craig Hallum increased their price target on Applied Digital from $12.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday, August 18th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and twelve have given a Buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Applied Digital has a consensus rating of "Buy" and an average price target of $15.64.

Insider Transactions at Applied Digital

In other Applied Digital news, Director Richard N. Nottenburg sold 11,250 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Friday, August 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $14.22, for a total transaction of $159,975.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 317,987 shares of the company's stock, valued at $4,521,775.14. This trade represents a 3.42% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 11.81% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Applied Digital

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. BNP Paribas Financial Markets grew its stake in shares of Applied Digital by 24,356.8% in the second quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 5,219,565 shares of the company's stock valued at $52,561,000 after buying an additional 5,198,223 shares in the last quarter. Situational Awareness LP acquired a new stake in shares of Applied Digital in the first quarter valued at $22,680,000. Tidal Investments LLC grew its stake in shares of Applied Digital by 14,635.7% in the fourth quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 1,697,850 shares of the company's stock valued at $12,972,000 after buying an additional 1,686,328 shares in the last quarter. Partners Capital Investment Group LLP acquired a new stake in shares of Applied Digital in the first quarter valued at $8,673,000. Finally, HRT Financial LP acquired a new stake in shares of Applied Digital in the second quarter valued at $14,759,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 65.67% of the company's stock.

Applied Digital Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.36, a current ratio of 0.77 and a quick ratio of 0.77. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $11.90 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $8.78. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -14.96 and a beta of 6.17.

Applied Digital (NASDAQ:APLD - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 30th. The company reported ($0.12) earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.12). The business had revenue of $38.01 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $42.86 million. Applied Digital had a negative return on equity of 50.03% and a negative net margin of 107.22%.The company's revenue was up 41.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted ($0.14) earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Applied Digital Corporation will post -0.96 EPS for the current year.

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.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest and most accurate reporting. This story was reviewed by MarketBeat's editorial team prior to publication. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.