Applied Digital Corporation $APLD Shares Acquired by Russell Investments Group Ltd.

Key Points

• Russell Investments Group Ltd. increased its stake in Applied Digital Corporation (NASDAQ: APLD) by 29.3%, acquiring a total of 122,570 shares valued at approximately $689,000.
• Around 65.67% of Applied Digital's stock is owned by hedge funds and institutional investors, with several firms, including Envestnet and Invesco, increasing their positions significantly during the previous quarter.
• Analysts have raised their price targets for Applied Digital, with Needham & Company setting the new target at $16.00, reflecting strong market optimism and a consensus rating of "Buy".

Russell Investments Group Ltd. grew its position in shares of Applied Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:APLD - Free Report) by 29.3% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 122,570 shares of the company's stock after acquiring an additional 27,782 shares during the quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. owned about 0.05% of Applied Digital worth $689,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Applied Digital in the first quarter worth $28,000. CWM LLC increased its position in shares of Applied Digital by 116.5% in the first quarter. CWM LLC now owns 9,506 shares of the company's stock worth $53,000 after acquiring an additional 5,116 shares in the last quarter. Semus Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Applied Digital in the first quarter worth $56,000. Lbmc Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Applied Digital in the first quarter worth $67,000. Finally, Mayfair Advisory Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Applied Digital in the first quarter worth $68,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 65.67% of the company's stock.

Applied Digital Stock Down 3.7%

APLD traded down $0.62 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $15.98. 27,974,558 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 29,463,306. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $12.37 and a 200-day simple moving average of $9.02. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.36, a quick ratio of 0.77 and a current ratio of 0.77. Applied Digital Corporation has a 12 month low of $3.01 and a 12 month high of $17.60.

Applied Digital (NASDAQ:APLD - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 30th. The company reported ($0.12) EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts' consensus estimates 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 the consensus estimate of $42.86 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted ($0.14) earnings per share. The firm's revenue was up 41.3% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Applied Digital Corporation will post -0.96 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Richard N. Nottenburg sold 11,250 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $14.22, for a total value of $159,975.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 317,987 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,521,775.14. This trade represents a 3.42% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Insiders own 11.81% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently issued reports on APLD. Craig Hallum increased their price objective on shares of Applied Digital from $12.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday, August 18th. Lake Street Capital upped their target price on shares of Applied Digital from $14.00 to $18.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Citizens Jmp upgraded shares of Applied Digital to a "strong-buy" rating and set a $12.00 target price for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 22nd. Needham & Company LLC upped their target price on shares of Applied Digital from $12.00 to $16.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, B. Riley upped their target price on shares of Applied Digital from $8.00 to $15.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 4th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and twelve have assigned a Buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus target price of $15.64.

Applied Digital Company Profile

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.