Appian (NASDAQ:APPN) Upgraded at Zacks Research

Zacks Research upgraded shares of Appian (NASDAQ:APPN) from a hold rating to a strong-buy rating in a report published on Monday,Zacks.com reports.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports on APPN. Wall Street Zen cut Appian from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 23rd. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Appian in a research report on Monday, December 29th. DA Davidson set a $25.00 target price on shares of Appian in a report on Friday, February 20th. UBS Group set a $21.00 price target on shares of Appian in a report on Friday, February 20th. Finally, Barclays decreased their price objective on shares of Appian from $34.00 to $21.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 20th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have issued a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $30.00.

Appian Price Performance

APPN stock opened at $26.33 on Monday. Appian has a fifty-two week low of $21.77 and a fifty-two week high of $46.06. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 2,633.00 and a beta of 0.90. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $29.86 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $32.32.

Appian (NASDAQ:APPN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 19th. The company reported $0.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.11 by $0.04. Appian had a net margin of 0.17% and a negative return on equity of 11.83%. The company had revenue of $202.87 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $189.33 million. The business’s revenue was up 21.7% on a year-over-year basis. Appian has set its FY 2026 guidance at 0.820-0.960 EPS and its Q1 2026 guidance at 0.160-0.200 EPS. Research analysts expect that Appian will post -0.28 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Appian

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in APPN. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Appian by 282.5% in the third quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 811 shares of the company’s stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 599 shares during the last quarter. Aster Capital Management DIFC Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Appian in the 4th quarter valued at about $30,000. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. increased its stake in shares of Appian by 693.4% in the third quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 968 shares of the company’s stock valued at $30,000 after buying an additional 846 shares during the period. Kestra Advisory Services LLC bought a new position in shares of Appian during the fourth quarter worth about $34,000. Finally, Allworth Financial LP raised its holdings in Appian by 175.2% during the 3rd quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 1,131 shares of the company’s stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 720 shares during the last quarter. 52.70% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Appian News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Appian this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Zacks upgraded Appian to a “Strong Buy,” which can drive buying interest from retail and quant strategies that track Zacks ranks. Zacks Upgrade
• Positive Sentiment: Recent earnings: Appian beat Q4 estimates (reported $0.15 EPS vs. $0.11 consensus) and posted revenue growth (~21.7% YoY) and set FY‑2026 EPS guidance (0.82–0.96), giving the bulls fundamental justification for buying pressure. (Company earnings release)
• Positive Sentiment: Investor access: Appian’s CFO will present at the Morgan Stanley TMT conference on March 2 — additional analyst/investor exposure and a live webcast can boost near‑term interest. Morgan Stanley Presentation
• Neutral Sentiment: Market commentary: Several recent analyses (Yahoo Finance) are revisiting Appian’s valuation and multi‑year share‑price history — useful context but not an immediate catalyst. Valuation Coverage
• Neutral Sentiment: Short‑interest data feed shows conflicting entries (some records reporting 0 shares / NaN growth) — likely a reporting glitch; treat those specific data points cautiously.
• Negative Sentiment: Short interest rise: As of Feb 13 short interest reportedly rose ~31.8% to ~3.78M shares (≈9.1% of shares outstanding) with a short‑interest ratio of ~2.9 days — higher short exposure can add downward pressure or volatility if sentiment flips. (data point)

Appian Company Profile

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.