Barclays Issues Pessimistic Forecast for Appian (NASDAQ:APPN) Stock Price

Appian (NASDAQ:APPN) had its price target decreased by Barclays from $34.00 to $21.00 in a report issued on Friday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an “underweight” rating on the stock. Barclays‘s price target indicates a potential downside of 16.47% from the company’s previous close.

Several other research firms have also recently weighed in on APPN. Wall Street Zen cut Appian from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 23rd. Citigroup reduced their target price on shares of Appian from $48.00 to $38.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday. Zacks Research cut shares of Appian from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, January 9th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Appian in a report on Monday, December 29th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised shares of Appian from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $45.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 12th. 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 stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $30.00.

Appian Price Performance

Shares of Appian stock opened at $25.14 on Friday. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $30.55 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $32.39. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 2,514.00 and a beta of 0.90. Appian has a fifty-two week low of $21.77 and a fifty-two week high of $46.06.

Appian (NASDAQ:APPN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 19th. The company reported $0.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.11 by $0.04. Appian had a net margin of 0.17% and a negative return on equity of 11.98%. The company had revenue of $202.87 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $189.33 million. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 21.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Appian has set its FY 2026 guidance at 0.820-0.960 EPS and its Q1 2026 guidance at 0.160-0.200 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Appian will post -0.28 earnings per share for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Appian

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of APPN. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in 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 bought a new stake in shares of Appian during the 4th quarter valued at about $30,000. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. boosted its position in shares of Appian by 693.4% during the 3rd quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 968 shares of the company’s stock valued at $30,000 after purchasing an additional 846 shares in the last quarter. Kestra Advisory Services LLC acquired a new stake in Appian during the fourth quarter worth approximately $34,000. Finally, Allworth Financial LP increased its holdings in Appian by 175.2% in the third quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 1,131 shares of the company’s stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 720 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 52.70% of the company’s stock.

Key Stories Impacting Appian

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)

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.