Applied Digital (NASDAQ:APLD) Sees Unusually-High Trading Volume After Analyst Upgrade

Shares of Applied Digital Co. (NASDAQ:APLD) saw strong trading volume on Tuesday after JMP Securities raised their price target on the stock from $12.00 to $18.00. JMP Securities currently has a market outperform rating on the stock. 53,484,568 shares were traded during mid-day trading, an increase of 64% from the previous session’s volume of 32,565,641 shares.The stock last traded at $10.01 and had previously closed at $10.14.

Other research analysts also recently issued research reports about the stock. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and set a $10.00 price objective on shares of Applied Digital in a report on Monday. Northland Securities upped their target price on shares of Applied Digital from $12.00 to $20.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. Cantor Fitzgerald decreased their target price on shares of Applied Digital from $14.00 to $7.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 15th. Craig Hallum upped their target price on shares of Applied Digital from $10.00 to $12.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, HC Wainwright upped their target price on shares of Applied Digital from $7.00 to $12.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Applied Digital presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $11.91.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Applied Digital news, Director Rachel H. Lee sold 24,212 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $7.00, for a total value of $169,484.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 83,613 shares in the company, valued at $585,291. This represents a 22.45% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 11.81% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Applied Digital

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Situational Awareness LP bought a new position in shares of Applied Digital during the first quarter valued at approximately $22,680,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Applied Digital by 39.1% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 12,760,035 shares of the company’s stock valued at $97,487,000 after purchasing an additional 3,587,619 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its stake in shares of Applied Digital by 113.8% during the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 4,404,313 shares of the company’s stock valued at $33,649,000 after purchasing an additional 2,344,572 shares in the last quarter. Tidal Investments LLC boosted its stake in shares of Applied Digital by 14,635.7% during the fourth quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 1,697,850 shares of the company’s stock valued at $12,972,000 after purchasing an additional 1,686,328 shares in the last quarter. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. bought a new position in shares of Applied Digital during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $12,843,000. 65.67% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Applied Digital Trading Up 1.1%

The company has a quick ratio of 0.77, a current ratio of 0.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.22. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $5.70 and its 200-day moving average price is $7.44. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.30 billion, a P/E ratio of -5.92 and a beta of 6.09.

Applied Digital (NASDAQ:APLD) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 14th. The company reported ($0.16) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.11) by ($0.05). Applied Digital had a negative net margin of 127.86% and a negative return on equity of 117.67%. The business had revenue of $52.92 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $62.91 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted ($0.24) earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Applied Digital Co. will post -0.96 earnings per share for the current year.

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.