Applied Digital (NASDAQ:APLD) Upgraded by Wall Street Zen to "Hold" Rating

Key Points

• Applied Digital (NASDAQ: APLD) received a rating upgrade from Wall Street Zen, moving from a "sell" to a "hold" rating, indicating a more favorable outlook from analysts.
• The company's recent earnings report showed a revenue of $38.01 million, which was below the consensus estimate of $52.25 million, despite beating EPS expectations.
• Insider trading activity included significant sales by CEO Wes Cummins and Director Richard N. Nottenburg, resulting in a reported decrease in their respective ownership stakes in the company.

Applied Digital (NASDAQ:APLD - Get Free Report) was upgraded by stock analysts at Wall Street Zen from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Saturday.

Several other equities analysts also recently commented on APLD. Weiss Ratings reiterated a "sell (d-)" rating on shares of Applied Digital in a research report on Wednesday. Northland Securities increased their target price on Applied Digital to $40.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday. Lake Street Capital raised their price objective on Applied Digital from $18.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday. Craig Hallum raised their price objective on Applied Digital from $12.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday, August 18th. Finally, Citigroup restated an "outperform" rating on shares of Applied Digital in a research report on Thursday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have given a Buy rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $22.10.

Applied Digital Price Performance

Applied Digital stock opened at $33.99 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.77, a quick ratio of 0.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.36. The company has a market capitalization of $9.31 billion, a PE ratio of -30.08 and a beta of 6.77. Applied Digital has a 12 month low of $3.31 and a 12 month high of $39.07. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $18.93 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $11.81.

Applied Digital (NASDAQ:APLD - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, October 9th. The company reported ($0.03) EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.11) by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $38.01 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $52.25 million. Applied Digital had a negative return on equity of 48.82% and a negative net margin of 111.29%.The business's quarterly revenue was up 84.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned ($0.15) earnings per share. Analysts expect that Applied Digital will post -0.96 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Wes Cummins sold 400,000 shares of the firm's 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 $6,104,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,659,379 shares of the company's stock, valued at $40,582,123.54. This trade represents a 13.07% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Richard N. Nottenburg sold 20,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $15.26, for a total value of $305,200.00. Following 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 position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 506,250 shares of company stock valued at $7,713,675 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 9.50% of the company's stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Applied Digital

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in APLD. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake in Applied Digital by 1,237.4% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 9,576 shares of the company's stock valued at $540,000 after acquiring an additional 8,860 shares during the period. Rhumbline Advisers grew its stake in Applied Digital by 7.8% in the first quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 279,191 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,569,000 after acquiring an additional 20,299 shares during the period. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC grew its stake in Applied Digital by 29.4% in the first quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 13,778 shares of the company's stock valued at $77,000 after acquiring an additional 3,127 shares during the period. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC grew its stake in Applied Digital by 4.0% in the first quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 1,042,035 shares of the company's stock valued at $5,856,000 after acquiring an additional 39,945 shares during the period. Finally, Mayfair Advisory Group LLC acquired a new stake in Applied Digital in the first quarter valued at approximately $68,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.

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