Applied Digital (NASDAQ:APLD) Shares Gap Up – Here’s Why

Applied Digital Co. (NASDAQ:APLD) gapped up before the market opened on Tuesday . The stock had previously closed at $6.48, but opened at $6.92. Applied Digital shares last traded at $6.59, with a volume of 5,899,302 shares traded.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

APLD has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and set a $11.00 price target on shares of Applied Digital in a research report on Wednesday, January 15th. Roth Mkm reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $10.00 price objective on shares of Applied Digital in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Craig Hallum increased their price objective on Applied Digital from $10.00 to $12.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Lake Street Capital increased their price objective on Applied Digital from $7.00 to $11.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Finally, HC Wainwright increased their price objective on Applied Digital from $10.00 to $12.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 15th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, According to MarketBeat.com, Applied Digital currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $11.13.

Applied Digital Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.22, a quick ratio of 0.77 and a current ratio of 0.77. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.45 billion, a P/E ratio of -3.75 and a beta of 4.78. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $9.01 and a 200-day moving average price of $7.09.

Applied Digital (NASDAQ:APLD) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 14th. The company reported ($0.06) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.14) by $0.08. Applied Digital had a negative return on equity of 117.67% and a negative net margin of 127.86%. The business had revenue of $63.87 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $62.41 million. During the same period last year, the company earned ($0.05) EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 51.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Applied Digital Co. will post -0.8 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Applied Digital

In other Applied Digital news, CEO Wes Cummins sold 200,000 shares of Applied Digital stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $9.20, for a total value of $1,840,000.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 3,875,955 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $35,658,786. This trade represents a 4.91 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Richard N. Nottenburg sold 20,000 shares of Applied Digital stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $8.85, for a total value of $177,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 342,923 shares in the company, valued at $3,034,868.55. This represents a 5.51 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 289,369 shares of company stock worth $2,622,461 in the last three months. Insiders own 11.81% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Applied Digital

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. R Squared Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Applied Digital in the 4th quarter valued at about $36,000. Spire Wealth Management acquired a new stake in shares of Applied Digital in the fourth quarter valued at about $43,000. KBC Group NV acquired a new stake in shares of Applied Digital in the fourth quarter valued at about $55,000. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank acquired a new stake in shares of Applied Digital in the third quarter valued at about $59,000. Finally, Beacon Harbor Wealth Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Applied Digital in the third quarter valued at about $83,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 65.67% of the company’s stock.

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.