Applied Digital Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (NASDAQ:APLD)

Applied Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:APLD) was the recipient of some unusual options trading activity on Thursday. Stock investors purchased 129,034 call options on the company. This is an increase of 38% compared to the average daily volume of 93,310 call options.

Applied Digital Stock Performance

Shares of Applied Digital stock opened at $10.91 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $2.46 billion, a PE ratio of -7.96 and a beta of 6.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.56, a quick ratio of 0.70 and a current ratio of 0.70. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $9.42 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $7.80. Applied Digital has a one year low of $3.01 and a one year high of $15.42.

Applied Digital (NASDAQ:APLD) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 14th. The company reported ($0.16) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.11) by ($0.05). Applied Digital had a negative net margin of 109.99% and a negative return on equity of 77.49%. The company had revenue of $52.92 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $62.91 million. During the same quarter last year, the company earned ($0.24) EPS. Research analysts expect that Applied Digital will post -0.96 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on APLD shares. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and set a $10.00 target price on shares of Applied Digital in a research note on Monday, June 2nd. Compass Point reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $13.00 target price (up from $10.00) on shares of Applied Digital in a research note on Monday, June 9th. JMP Securities boosted their target price on shares of Applied Digital from $12.00 to $18.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 3rd. Citizens Jmp upgraded Applied Digital to a “strong-buy” rating and set a $12.00 price objective for the company in a report on Thursday, May 22nd. Finally, B. Riley lifted their price objective on Applied Digital from $8.00 to $15.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Applied Digital has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $12.73.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Rachel H. Lee sold 24,212 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $7.00, for a total transaction of $169,484.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 83,613 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $585,291. The trade was a 22.45% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Corporate insiders own 11.81% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Applied Digital

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Hood River Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Applied Digital by 10.7% during 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 acquiring an additional 1,464,854 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Applied Digital by 5.7% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 13,491,013 shares of the company’s stock valued at $75,819,000 after acquiring an additional 730,978 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Applied Digital by 54.4% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,726,495 shares of the company’s stock valued at $36,117,000 after acquiring an additional 1,665,335 shares during the period. Situational Awareness LP acquired a new stake in Applied Digital during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $22,680,000. Finally, Pertento Partners LLP lifted its stake in Applied Digital by 49.0% during the 4th quarter. Pertento Partners LLP now owns 2,528,717 shares of the company’s stock valued at $19,319,000 after acquiring an additional 831,705 shares during the period. 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.