Applied Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:APLD) Stock Has Average Target Price of $60.88

Key Points

• Analyst consensus is moderately bullish: Twenty analysts rate Applied Digital “Moderate Buy,” with 13 buys and three strong buys. The average 12-month price target is $60.88, well above the stock’s reported $25.38 opening price.
• Applied Digital brought an additional 75 MW of AI infrastructure online at its fully leased Polaris Forge 1 campus, bringing operational capacity to 250 MW and potentially supporting higher contracted revenue.
• Execution and financial risks remain significant: The company missed quarterly EPS estimates ($0.39 loss versus a $0.09 expected loss), remains unprofitable and highly leveraged, and its stock is extremely volatile despite revenue rising 406.3% year over year.

Applied Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:APLD - Get Free Report) has earned an average rating of "Moderate Buy" from the twenty analysts that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating on the company. The average twelve-month price objective among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $60.88.

Several equities research analysts have commented on the company. Rothschild & Co Redburn set a $22.00 price objective on Applied Digital and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Monday, September 21st. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of Applied Digital from $36.50 to $37.50 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Thursday, August 6th. Citigroup reiterated a "market outperform" rating on shares of Applied Digital in a research note on Monday, August 3rd. Weiss Ratings reissued a "sell (d-)" rating on shares of Applied Digital in a report on Tuesday, July 21st. Finally, B. Riley Financial reissued a "buy" rating and set a $75.00 price target (up from $66.00) on shares of Applied Digital in a report on Monday, August 3rd.

Applied Digital News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Applied Digital this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Applied Digital brought an additional 75 megawatts of AI infrastructure online by completing three 25 MW data halls. Fully operational critical IT load at Polaris Forge 1 has now reached 250 MW, improving the company’s ability to serve high-performance-computing and AI customers. Applied Digital Brings an Additional 75 MW of AI Infrastructure Online at Polaris Forge 1
• Positive Sentiment: The Polaris Forge 1 campus is fully leased, so the added capacity is viewed as a path toward higher contracted revenue and greater utilization rather than speculative construction. The milestone also moves the site closer to its full planned capacity. Applied Digital adds 75 MW of AI capacity in North Dakota
• Neutral Sentiment: Management emphasized that power availability is only the starting point, suggesting additional opportunity to deploy compute infrastructure as AI demand grows. However, the announcement did not provide new financial guidance or details on the timing and profitability of revenue conversion.
• Negative Sentiment: Investors continue to face execution and valuation risk. Applied Digital has been highly volatile, recently traded well below its yearly high, and previously reported a quarterly earnings miss despite strong year-over-year revenue growth. The company’s substantial leverage and ongoing losses could amplify downside if customer deployments or data-center expansion are delayed.

Applied Digital Stock Performance

NASDAQ APLD opened at $25.38 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.40 billion, a P/E ratio of -28.52 and a beta of 5.99. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $27.20 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $32.59. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.88, a quick ratio of 4.01 and a current ratio of 4.01. Applied Digital has a fifty-two week low of $19.00 and a fifty-two week high of $50.72.

Applied Digital (NASDAQ:APLD - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Monday, July 27th. The company reported ($0.39) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.09) by ($0.30). The company had revenue of $240.35 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $96.85 million. Applied Digital had a negative return on equity of 16.42% and a negative net margin of 37.78%.The firm's quarterly revenue was up 406.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned ($0.24) EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Applied Digital will post -1.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Richard Nottenburg sold 75,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $31.15, for a total transaction of $2,336,250.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 133,378 shares in the company, valued at $4,154,724.70. This trade represents a 35.99% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 9.50% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Applied Digital

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. lifted its stake in Applied Digital by 4.7% in the 2nd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 13,333 shares of the company's stock valued at $497,000 after buying an additional 596 shares in the last quarter. WINTON GROUP Ltd purchased a new stake in Applied Digital during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $209,000. Engineers Gate Manager LP purchased a new stake in Applied Digital during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $4,350,000. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC acquired a new position in shares of Applied Digital during the second quarter valued at approximately $265,000. Finally, NewEdge Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Applied Digital by 35.1% during the second quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 81,134 shares of the company's stock valued at $3,026,000 after acquiring an additional 21,093 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 65.67% of the company's stock.

About Applied Digital

Applied Digital Corporation NASDAQ: APLD develops and operates digital infrastructure designed to support high-performance computing, artificial intelligence and other data-intensive applications. The company provides data-center capacity and related services to customers that require substantial computing power and electricity.

The company's business has included hosting infrastructure for cryptocurrency-mining operations and, increasingly, developing facilities for artificial intelligence and high-performance computing workloads.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.