Investors Buy High Volume of Put Options on Appian (NASDAQ:APPN)

Appian Corporation (NASDAQ:APPN) was the recipient of unusually large options trading activity on Tuesday. Stock traders bought 12,125 put options on the stock. This is an increase of 953% compared to the typical volume of 1,151 put options.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently commented on APPN shares. DA Davidson began coverage on Appian in a research note on Friday, November 7th. They issued a “hold” rating and a $38.00 target price for the company. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Appian in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Appian from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, December 6th. Barclays cut their price target on shares of Appian from $37.00 to $34.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday. Finally, Zacks Research cut shares of Appian from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, January 9th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $38.40.

Appian Trading Down 4.5%

Shares of NASDAQ APPN opened at $31.56 on Wednesday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $38.42 and a 200 day moving average price of $32.94. Appian has a 12-month low of $24.00 and a 12-month high of $46.06. The company has a market cap of $2.33 billion, a P/E ratio of -315.57 and a beta of 0.82.

Appian (NASDAQ:APPN) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The company reported $0.32 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.05 by $0.27. The company had revenue of $187.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $174.11 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.15 EPS. Appian’s quarterly revenue was up 21.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Appian will post -0.28 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Appian

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Millennium Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Appian by 18.9% during the first quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 302,720 shares of the company’s stock valued at $8,721,000 after acquiring an additional 48,014 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Appian by 2.2% in the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 385,731 shares of the company’s stock valued at $11,113,000 after purchasing an additional 8,319 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC raised its position in shares of Appian by 2.6% in the 1st quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 90,080 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,595,000 after purchasing an additional 2,244 shares in the last quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Appian during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $2,300,000. Finally, Rhumbline Advisers grew its position in shares of Appian by 4.4% during the first quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 60,088 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,731,000 after buying an additional 2,528 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 52.70% of the company’s stock.

About Appian

Appian Corporation is a global technology company specializing in low-code automation platforms designed to streamline business processes. Founded in 1999 by Matt Calkins, the company provides an integrated suite of tools that enables organizations to build enterprise applications and workflows rapidly with minimal hand coding. The platform combines process management, robotic process automation (RPA), artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities and data integration into a single environment, allowing businesses to accelerate digital transformation initiatives.

The core offering, the Appian Low-Code Platform, empowers users—ranging from professional developers to business analysts—to visually model, design and deploy applications that can automate complex operations, orchestrate tasks across systems, and deliver real-time analytics.