Appian (NASDAQ:APPN) Stock Price Up 7% After Earnings Beat

Shares of Appian Corporation (NASDAQ:APPN) traded up 7% during trading on Friday following a stronger than expected earnings report. The company traded as high as $25.92 and last traded at $26.2470. 216,488 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 82% from the average session volume of 1,179,882 shares. The stock had previously closed at $24.54.

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 negative return on equity of 11.98% and a net margin of 0.17%.The business had revenue of $202.87 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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.

Key Appian News

Here are the key news stories impacting Appian this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Q4 beat and revenue growth — Appian reported $0.15 EPS vs. consensus ~$0.11 and revenue of $202.9M (≈22% YoY growth), beating estimates. This is the main driver of the rally. Appian Q4 Earnings Surpass Estimates
• Positive Sentiment: Raised guidance — Appian issued Q1 FY2026 EPS guidance of $0.160–0.200 (well above street) and FY2026 EPS of $0.820–0.960, plus higher revenue ranges, which materially improved forward expectations. Press Release / Guidance
• Positive Sentiment: Profitability and buyback — Coverage notes Appian has turned profitable and announced a $50M buyback, supporting EPS trajectory and signaling management confidence. Investors Reacting To Appian Turning Profitable
• Positive Sentiment: Operational highlights — Cloud subscription revenue grew ~18–19% YoY (Q4 and FY cloud subs), and management cited AI-driven upsell momentum and public sector gains in the outlook. Earnings Presentation
• Neutral Sentiment: Supporting materials — Multiple transcripts and deep-dive write-ups (earnings call, slide deck) are available for due diligence; these provide detail but are informational rather than market-moving by themselves. Earnings Call Transcript
• Neutral Sentiment: Short-interest data appears anomalous — Recent short-interest reports show “0” shares (likely a reporting glitch); no clear signal of a meaningful short squeeze or covering pressure. MarketBeat
• Neutral Sentiment: Volume and momentum — Trading volume has picked up versus the stock’s average, consistent with earnings-driven moves; monitor whether volume sustains. Seeking Alpha: Stock Reaction
• Negative Sentiment: Analyst downgrades/target cuts — TD Cowen lowered its target to $30 (hold) and Barclays cut to $21 (underweight); these trims indicate some analysts are taking a more cautious view despite the beat. Benzinga (TD Cowen) Benzinga (Barclays)

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently commented on APPN shares. 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 report on Friday. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Appian from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 23rd. Zacks Research cut shares of Appian from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, January 9th. DA Davidson set a $25.00 price objective on Appian in a research report on Friday. Finally, Citigroup lowered their target price on Appian from $48.00 to $38.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $30.00.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Appian

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Appian by 282.5% during the 3rd quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 811 shares of the company’s stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 599 shares during the period. Aster Capital Management DIFC Ltd acquired a new position in Appian during the fourth quarter worth approximately $30,000. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. raised its stake in Appian by 693.4% during the third quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 968 shares of the company’s stock worth $30,000 after purchasing an additional 846 shares during the period. Kestra Advisory Services LLC purchased a new position in Appian during the fourth quarter worth approximately $34,000. Finally, Allworth Financial LP boosted its holdings in shares of Appian by 175.2% in the 3rd quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 1,131 shares of the company’s stock valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 720 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 52.70% of the company’s stock.

Appian Trading Up 2.4%

The company’s 50 day moving average price is $30.55 and its 200-day moving average price is $32.35. The company has a market capitalization of $1.86 billion, a PE ratio of 2,514.00 and a beta of 0.90.

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.