Applied Digital (NASDAQ:APLD) Shares Down 6.6% – Here’s What Happened

Applied Digital Co. (NASDAQ:APLD) shares were down 6.6% during trading on Friday . The company traded as low as $8.37 and last traded at $8.59. Approximately 5,052,017 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 42% from the average daily volume of 8,645,497 shares. The stock had previously closed at $9.20.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently issued reports on APLD shares. Cantor Fitzgerald began coverage on Applied Digital in a research report on Friday, December 20th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $15.00 target price for the company. Craig Hallum increased their price objective on Applied Digital from $10.00 to $12.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $11.00 target price on shares of Applied Digital in a report on Friday, November 1st. B. Riley increased their price target on shares of Applied Digital from $8.00 to $9.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 13th. Finally, Lake Street Capital raised their price objective on shares of Applied Digital from $7.00 to $11.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $11.14.

Applied Digital Stock Performance

The company has a market cap of $1.77 billion, a PE ratio of -7.15 and a beta of 4.67. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62, a quick ratio of 0.22 and a current ratio of 0.22. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $8.54 and its 200 day simple moving average is $6.63.

Applied Digital (NASDAQ:APLD) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 9th. The company reported ($0.15) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.28) by $0.13. Applied Digital had a negative net margin of 74.95% and a negative return on equity of 88.87%. The business had revenue of $60.70 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $54.85 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted ($0.10) earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 67.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Applied Digital Co. will post -0.4 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Applied Digital

In related news, CEO Wes Cummins sold 200,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $9.20, for a total value of $1,840,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 3,875,955 shares in the company, valued at $35,658,786. This trade represents a 4.91 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director Richard N. Nottenburg sold 80,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $7.37, for a total transaction of $589,600.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 433,686 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,196,265.82. This represents a 15.57 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 359,369 shares of company stock worth $3,115,161 over the last three months. 11.81% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Applied Digital

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Applied Digital by 36.5% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 899,293 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,419,000 after buying an additional 240,554 shares in the last quarter. Quadrature Capital Ltd purchased a new position in Applied Digital during the 3rd quarter valued at about $545,000. Barclays PLC raised its position in Applied Digital by 736.8% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 486,577 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,014,000 after acquiring an additional 428,428 shares during the last quarter. Virtu Financial LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Applied Digital in the third quarter valued at about $2,030,000. Finally, B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. grew its position in shares of Applied Digital by 66.1% in the second quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 774,655 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,609,000 after purchasing an additional 308,223 shares during the last quarter. 65.67% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.