Applied Digital Target of Unusually High Options Trading (NASDAQ:APLD)

Applied Digital Co. (NASDAQ:APLD) saw unusually large options trading activity on Monday. Investors acquired 148,966 call options on the stock. This is an increase of 155% compared to the average daily volume of 58,450 call options.

Applied Digital Trading Up 1.1%

Shares of Applied Digital stock opened at $10.25 on Wednesday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $5.70 and a 200-day simple moving average of $7.44. The firm has a market cap of $2.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -5.92 and a beta of 6.09. Applied Digital has a fifty-two week low of $3.01 and a fifty-two week high of $12.48. The company has a quick ratio of 0.77, a current ratio of 0.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.22.

Applied Digital (NASDAQ:APLD) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 14th. The company reported ($0.16) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate 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 last year, the business posted ($0.24) EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Applied Digital will post -0.96 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Rachel H. Lee sold 24,212 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $7.00, for a total transaction of $169,484.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 83,613 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $585,291. This represents a 22.45% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 11.81% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Hood River Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Applied Digital by 10.7% in the 4th quarter. Hood River Capital Management LLC now owns 15,147,422 shares of the company’s stock valued at $115,726,000 after purchasing an additional 1,464,854 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Applied Digital by 5.7% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 13,491,013 shares of the company’s stock valued at $75,819,000 after buying an additional 730,978 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in Applied Digital by 54.4% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,726,495 shares of the company’s stock valued at $36,117,000 after buying an additional 1,665,335 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp grew its stake in Applied Digital by 113.8% during the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 4,404,313 shares of the company’s stock valued at $33,649,000 after acquiring an additional 2,344,572 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Situational Awareness LP purchased a new stake in shares of Applied Digital in the first quarter worth approximately $22,680,000. Institutional investors own 65.67% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently weighed in on APLD. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $10.00 price objective on shares of Applied Digital in a research note on Monday. Cantor Fitzgerald reduced their target price on shares of Applied Digital from $14.00 to $7.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 15th. Northland Securities raised their price target on shares of Applied Digital from $12.00 to $20.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. JMP Securities boosted their price target on Applied Digital from $12.00 to $18.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Citizens Jmp raised Applied Digital to a “strong-buy” rating and set a $12.00 price target for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 22nd. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Applied Digital presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $11.91.

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.