Investors Purchase Large Volume of Call Options on Applied Digital (NASDAQ:APLD)

Applied Digital Co. (NASDAQ:APLD) was the recipient of unusually large options trading on Friday. Stock traders purchased 73,653 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of approximately 63% compared to the typical volume of 45,278 call options.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Richard N. Nottenburg sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $8.85, for a total transaction of $177,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 342,923 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,034,868.55. This trade represents a 5.51 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Wes Cummins sold 200,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $9.20, for a total value 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 represents a 4.91 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 270,000 shares of company stock worth $2,477,000. 11.81% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Applied Digital

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of APLD. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company lifted its stake in shares of Applied Digital by 25.0% during the 2nd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 37,641 shares of the company’s stock worth $224,000 after acquiring an additional 7,517 shares during the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC bought a new stake in shares of Applied Digital during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $426,000. Jade Capital Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Applied Digital during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $236,000. Private Advisor Group LLC increased its holdings in Applied Digital by 159.7% during the 3rd quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 38,700 shares of the company’s stock worth $319,000 after purchasing an additional 23,800 shares during the period. Finally, Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC purchased a new position in Applied Digital during the 3rd quarter worth $88,000. 65.67% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently commented on APLD shares. Northland Securities increased their price target on Applied Digital from $12.00 to $20.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. Compass Point started coverage on Applied Digital in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. They set a “buy” rating and a $10.00 price target for the company. HC Wainwright increased their price target on Applied Digital from $10.00 to $12.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and set a $11.00 price target on shares of Applied Digital in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald lowered their price objective on Applied Digital from $15.00 to $14.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $12.11.

Applied Digital Price Performance

NASDAQ:APLD opened at $9.11 on Friday. Applied Digital has a 1 year low of $2.36 and a 1 year high of $11.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.22, a current ratio of 0.77 and a quick ratio of 0.77. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -5.27 and a beta of 4.77. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $8.43 and a 200-day simple moving average of $7.25.

Applied Digital (NASDAQ:APLD) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 14th. The company reported ($0.06) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.14) by $0.08. Applied Digital had a negative return on equity of 117.67% and a negative net margin of 127.86%. The firm had revenue of $63.87 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $62.41 million. During the same period last year, the company earned ($0.05) EPS. Applied Digital’s quarterly revenue was up 51.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts forecast that Applied Digital will post -0.96 EPS for the current 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.