Stock Traders Buy High Volume of Call Options on Applied Digital (NASDAQ:APLD)

Key Points

• Traders purchased a significant 178,580 call options on Applied Digital, marking a 36% increase in volume compared to the average daily trading activity.
• Multiple analysts have upgraded their ratings and price targets for Applied Digital, with Craig Hallum raising its price target from $12.00 to $23.00 and HC Wainwright increasing it to $20.00, both maintaining a "buy" rating.
• Insider selling activity has been notable, with the CFO and a director selling shares while insiders collectively own 9.50% of the stock, indicating potential liquidity concerns.

Applied Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:APLD - Get Free Report) saw unusually large options trading activity on Friday. Traders purchased 178,580 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 36% compared to the average daily volume of 131,252 call options.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Lake Street Capital restated a "buy" rating on shares of Applied Digital in a research report on Friday. Craig Hallum lifted their price objective on Applied Digital from $12.00 to $23.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Monday, August 18th. HC Wainwright lifted their price objective on Applied Digital from $15.00 to $20.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Monday, August 25th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a "sell (d-)" rating on shares of Applied Digital in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Citigroup reiterated an "outperform" rating on shares of Applied Digital in a research note on Thursday. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Buy rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Applied Digital has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $16.20.

Insider Transactions at Applied Digital

In other news, CFO Mohammad Saidal Lavanw Mohmand sold 75,000 shares of Applied Digital stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $15.26, for a total transaction of $1,144,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 201,800 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,079,468. This trade represents a 27.10% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Richard N. Nottenburg sold 20,000 shares of Applied Digital stock in a transaction 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. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 506,250 shares of company stock worth $7,713,675. 9.50% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Atlantic Union Bankshares Corp acquired a new stake in Applied Digital in the second quarter worth $25,000. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. purchased a new position in shares of Applied Digital during the second quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Ameriflex Group Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Applied Digital during the second quarter valued at approximately $42,000. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Applied Digital during the first quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Finally, Hollencrest Capital Management purchased a new position in shares of Applied Digital during the second quarter valued at approximately $50,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 65.67% of the company's stock.

Applied Digital Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ APLD traded up $7.77 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $37.06. 46,298,355 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 36,156,371. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $18.50 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $11.62. Applied Digital has a twelve month low of $3.31 and a twelve month high of $39.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.36, a current ratio of 0.77 and a quick ratio of 0.77. The company has a market cap of $10.15 billion, a PE ratio of -34.00 and a beta of 6.77.

Applied Digital (NASDAQ:APLD - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 9th. The company reported ($0.03) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.11) by $0.08. The company 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 50.03% and a negative net margin of 107.22%.The firm's revenue was up 84.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted ($0.15) earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Applied Digital will post -0.96 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.

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