Applied Digital (NASDAQ:APLD) Trading Down 2.4% - Time to Sell?

Key Points

• Applied Digital's stock (NASDAQ: APLD) fell 2.4% to $14.61 amid a significant drop in trading volume, down 70% from the average.
• Analysts have high hopes for the company, with multiple brokerages recently increasing their price targets, with estimates ranging from $12.00 to $18.00 and a consensus "Buy" rating.
• The company reported earnings of ($0.12) per share for the last quarter, matching analysts' expectations, but its revenue of $38.01 million fell short of the consensus estimate of $42.86 million.

Applied Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:APLD - Get Free Report)'s stock price was down 2.4% during trading on Wednesday . The company traded as low as $14.51 and last traded at $14.61. Approximately 11,472,192 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 70% from the average daily volume of 38,076,660 shares. The stock had previously closed at $14.97.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on APLD shares. Citigroup reaffirmed an "outperform" rating on shares of Applied Digital in a report on Tuesday, June 3rd. Compass Point upgraded shares of Applied Digital from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $13.00 target price for the company in a research report on Friday, July 25th. JMP Securities increased their target price on shares of Applied Digital from $12.00 to $18.00 and gave the stock a "market outperform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 3rd. Lake Street Capital increased their target price on shares of Applied Digital from $14.00 to $18.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, B. Riley increased their target price on shares of Applied Digital from $8.00 to $15.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 4th. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Applied Digital presently has an average rating of "Buy" and an average target price of $14.18.

Applied Digital Stock Down 3.2%

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 stock has a market cap of $3.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -12.93 and a beta of 6.17. The firm's 50-day simple moving average is $11.45 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $8.43.

Applied Digital (NASDAQ:APLD - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 30th. The company reported ($0.12) earnings per share 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 analysts' expectations of $42.86 million. During the same quarter last year, the company posted ($0.14) EPS. The company's quarterly revenue was up 41.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Applied Digital Corporation will post -0.96 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Applied Digital

In related news, Director Rachel H. Lee sold 24,212 shares of Applied Digital stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $7.00, for a total transaction of $169,484.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 83,613 shares of the company's stock, valued at $585,291. This trade represents a 22.45% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Richard N. Nottenburg sold 11,250 shares of Applied Digital stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the director directly owned 317,987 shares in the company, valued at $4,521,775.14. The trade was a 3.42% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 11.81% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of APLD. Hood River Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Applied Digital by 2.8% in the second quarter. Hood River Capital Management LLC now owns 21,859,031 shares of the company's stock valued at $220,120,000 after buying an additional 592,314 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Applied Digital by 5.7% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 13,491,013 shares of the company's stock valued at $75,819,000 after buying an additional 730,978 shares in the last quarter. Situational Awareness LP lifted its stake in Applied Digital by 63.3% in the second quarter. Situational Awareness LP now owns 6,591,800 shares of the company's stock valued at $66,379,000 after buying an additional 2,556,200 shares in the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets lifted its stake in 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. Finally, MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. lifted its stake in Applied Digital by 24.0% in the second quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 2,661,296 shares of the company's stock valued at $26,799,000 after buying an additional 514,896 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors 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.