Short Interest in Appian Corporation (NASDAQ:APPN) Rises By 18.7%

Key Points

• Short interest rose 18.7% in April to 5,697,907 shares (about 13.5% of the float) with a short-interest ratio of 7.2 days.
• Appian beat the quarter with $0.15 EPS vs. $0.11 est. and revenue of $202.87M (+21.7% y/y), and set FY2026 EPS guidance of 0.820–0.960 and Q1 2026 guidance of 0.160–0.200.
• Analyst views are mixed — MarketBeat shows an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $29.33, with targets ranging from Barclays' $21 (underweight) to Morgan Stanley's $41.

Appian Corporation (NASDAQ:APPN - Get Free Report) was the recipient of a large growth in short interest during the month of April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totaling 5,697,907 shares, a growth of 18.7% from the March 31st total of 4,798,466 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 793,120 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 7.2 days. Approximately 13.5% of the company's shares are short sold.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts recently weighed in on APPN shares. UBS Group set a $21.00 price objective on shares of Appian in a research report on Friday, February 20th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Appian from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, January 23rd. DA Davidson set a $25.00 price objective on shares of Appian in a research report on Friday, February 20th. Morgan Stanley set a $41.00 price objective on shares of Appian in a research report on Friday, February 20th. Finally, Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of Appian from $34.00 to $21.00 and set an "underweight" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 20th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have assigned a Buy rating, two have issued a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, Appian currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $29.33.

Institutional Trading of Appian

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Appian by 2.7% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,095,904 shares of the company's stock worth $215,917,000 after acquiring an additional 159,956 shares during the period. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its holdings in Appian by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 1,304,470 shares of the company's stock worth $46,204,000 after acquiring an additional 13,346 shares during the period. First Trust Advisors LP grew its holdings in Appian by 8.2% during the 4th quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 1,159,940 shares of the company's stock worth $41,085,000 after acquiring an additional 87,557 shares during the period. Wolf Hill Capital Management LP grew its holdings in Appian by 298.1% during the 3rd quarter. Wolf Hill Capital Management LP now owns 995,210 shares of the company's stock worth $30,424,000 after acquiring an additional 745,210 shares during the period. Finally, Nuveen LLC grew its holdings in Appian by 16.9% during the 4th quarter. Nuveen LLC now owns 693,874 shares of the company's stock worth $24,577,000 after acquiring an additional 100,178 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 52.70% of the company's stock.

Appian Stock Performance

APPN opened at $21.72 on Thursday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $24.10 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $30.27. Appian has a 52 week low of $19.89 and a 52 week high of $46.06. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.61 billion, a PE ratio of 2,172.00 and a beta of 1.00.

Appian (NASDAQ:APPN - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 19th. The company reported $0.15 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.11 by $0.04. Appian had a net margin of 0.17% and a negative return on equity of 11.83%. The firm had revenue of $202.87 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $189.33 million. The business's quarterly revenue was up 21.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Appian has set its FY 2026 guidance at 0.820-0.960 EPS and its Q1 2026 guidance at 0.160-0.200 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Appian will post 0.33 EPS for the current year.

Appian Company Profile

Appian Corporation is a global technology company specializing in low-code automation platforms designed to streamline business processes. Founded in 1999 by Matt Calkins, the company provides an integrated suite of tools that enables organizations to build enterprise applications and workflows rapidly with minimal hand coding. The platform combines process management, robotic process automation (RPA), artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities and data integration into a single environment, allowing businesses to accelerate digital transformation initiatives.

The core offering, the Appian Low-Code Platform, empowers users—ranging from professional developers to business analysts—to visually model, design and deploy applications that can automate complex operations, orchestrate tasks across systems, and deliver real-time analytics.

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.