Applied Digital (NASDAQ:APLD) Shares Down 3% After Analyst Downgrade

Applied Digital Co. (NASDAQ:APLD) fell 3% during trading on Wednesday after Cantor Fitzgerald lowered their price target on the stock from $15.00 to $14.00. Cantor Fitzgerald currently has an overweight rating on the stock. Applied Digital traded as low as $8.11 and last traded at $8.28. 16,873,491 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 21% from the average session volume of 21,458,602 shares. The stock had previously closed at $8.54.

Several other brokerages have also recently commented on APLD. HC Wainwright increased their price target on Applied Digital from $5.00 to $10.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $11.00 price objective on shares of Applied Digital in a research report on Wednesday. Roth Mkm reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $10.00 price objective on shares of Applied Digital in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Craig Hallum raised their price objective on Applied Digital from $10.00 to $12.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Finally, Lake Street Capital raised their price objective on Applied Digital from $7.00 to $11.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $11.29.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Wes Cummins sold 200,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $9.20, for a total transaction of $1,840,000.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 3,875,955 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $35,658,786. This trade represents a 4.91 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Richard N. Nottenburg sold 19,369 shares of Applied Digital stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $7.51, for a total value of $145,461.19. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 384,317 shares in the company, valued at $2,886,220.67. The trade was a 4.80 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 269,369 shares of company stock worth $2,445,461 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 11.81% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in shares of Applied Digital by 8.8% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 37,411 shares of the company’s stock valued at $309,000 after purchasing an additional 3,040 shares during the period. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its position in Applied Digital by 14.4% in the 3rd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 43,064 shares of the company’s stock valued at $355,000 after buying an additional 5,423 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its position in Applied Digital by 99.1% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 13,071 shares of the company’s stock valued at $108,000 after buying an additional 6,507 shares in the last quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank bought a new stake in Applied Digital in the 3rd quarter valued at about $59,000. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. increased its position in Applied Digital by 72.5% in the 3rd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 19,535 shares of the company’s stock valued at $161,000 after buying an additional 8,212 shares in the last quarter. 65.67% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Applied Digital Price Performance

The firm has a market capitalization of $1.77 billion, a P/E ratio of -7.15 and a beta of 4.78. The business has a 50-day moving average of $8.77 and a 200 day moving average of $6.95. The company has a current ratio of 0.22, a quick ratio of 0.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62.

Applied Digital (NASDAQ:APLD) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 14th. The company reported ($0.06) EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.14) by $0.08. The business had revenue of $63.87 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $62.41 million. Applied Digital had a negative return on equity of 88.87% and a negative net margin of 74.95%. Applied Digital’s revenue for the quarter was up 51.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned ($0.05) earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Applied Digital Co. will post -0.4 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Applied Digital Company Profile

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.