Applied Digital Target of Unusually High Options Trading (NASDAQ:APLD)

Key Points

• Applied Digital Corporation experienced a significant increase in options trading with 329,205 call options purchased, marking a 221% rise compared to average daily volume.
• Director Rachel H. Lee sold 24,212 shares at $7.00 each, resulting in a 22.45% reduction in her ownership, now holding 83,613 shares valued at approximately $585,291.
• Analysts have raised their price targets for Applied Digital, with Craig Hallum increasing it from $10.00 to $12.00, and a consensus price target now set at $14.18 with several analysts rating the stock as a "buy."

Applied Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:APLD - Get Free Report) saw some unusual options trading activity on Friday. Stock traders acquired 329,205 call options on the stock. Thisrepresentsanincreaseofapproximately221% compared to the average daily volume of 102,599 call options.

Applied Digital Trading Down 4.7%

Applied Digital stock traded down $0.62 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $12.52. 50,428,153 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 32,372,608. The company has a quick ratio of 0.70, a current ratio of 0.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.36. Applied Digital has a 12 month low of $3.01 and a 12 month high of $15.42. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is $10.39 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $7.98. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -11.49 and a beta of 6.17.

Applied Digital (NASDAQ:APLD - Get Free Report) last released 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). The company had revenue of $38.01 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $42.86 million. Applied Digital had a negative net margin of 107.22% and a negative return on equity of 50.03%. Applied Digital's revenue for the quarter was up 41.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted ($0.14) EPS. Analysts forecast that Applied Digital will post -0.96 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Applied Digital

In other news, Director Rachel H. Lee sold 24,212 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $7.00, for a total value of $169,484.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 83,613 shares in the company, valued at $585,291. This represents a 22.45% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 11.81% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Applied Digital

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Teacher Retirement System of Texas purchased a new position in Applied Digital during the 1st quarter worth $139,000. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC raised its stake in Applied Digital by 4.0% in the 1st 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. Register Financial Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Applied Digital by 26.2% during the first quarter. Register Financial Advisors LLC now owns 254,200 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,429,000 after buying an additional 52,700 shares during the period. Wells Fargo & Company MN increased its position in shares of Applied Digital by 96.6% during the fourth quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 119,963 shares of the company's stock valued at $917,000 after buying an additional 58,943 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Applied Digital by 39.1% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 12,760,035 shares of the company's stock valued at $97,487,000 after buying an additional 3,587,619 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 65.67% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently commented on APLD. Citizens Jmp upgraded shares of Applied Digital to a "strong-buy" rating and set a $12.00 target price for the company in a report on Thursday, May 22nd. Roth Capital reaffirmed a "buy" rating on shares of Applied Digital in a research report on Monday, June 2nd. Citigroup reiterated an "outperform" rating on shares of Applied Digital in a research note on Tuesday, June 3rd. Compass Point upgraded shares of Applied Digital from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $13.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Finally, HC Wainwright raised their price target on shares of Applied Digital from $12.00 to $15.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Buy" and an average target price of $14.18.

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.