Raymond James Financial Inc. Acquires New Holdings in Appian Co. (NASDAQ:APPN)

Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in shares of Appian Co. (NASDAQ:APPN) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor bought 51,171 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,688,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. owned 0.06% of Appian as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of APPN. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Appian by 4.2% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 348,932 shares of the company’s stock worth $11,508,000 after purchasing an additional 14,085 shares during the last quarter. Versor Investments LP purchased a new stake in shares of Appian during the fourth quarter valued at about $574,000. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Appian by 5.1% in the 4th quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. now owns 8,200 shares of the company’s stock valued at $270,000 after buying an additional 400 shares in the last quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB grew its position in shares of Appian by 14.7% in the 4th quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 8,600 shares of the company’s stock worth $284,000 after buying an additional 1,100 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Entropy Technologies LP bought a new position in shares of Appian during the 4th quarter worth approximately $208,000. Institutional investors own 52.70% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have issued reports on APPN shares. Scotiabank started coverage on shares of Appian in a report on Monday, January 6th. They issued a “sector perform” rating and a $37.00 price target on the stock. Barclays upped their target price on Appian from $34.00 to $37.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Finally, KeyCorp reiterated a “sector weight” rating on shares of Appian in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Appian presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $37.80.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Albert G.W. Biddle III sold 990 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $33.21, for a total transaction of $32,877.90. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 29,348 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $974,647.08. This trade represents a 3.26 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders own 44.00% of the company’s stock.

Appian Price Performance

NASDAQ APPN opened at $28.81 on Tuesday. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $32.49 and its 200 day moving average price is $34.21. Appian Co. has a 1 year low of $26.28 and a 1 year high of $43.33. The company has a market cap of $2.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -22.87 and a beta of 1.65.

Appian (NASDAQ:APPN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 19th. The company reported ($0.12) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.01) by ($0.11). The firm had revenue of $166.70 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $164.31 million. Appian had a negative return on equity of 532.05% and a negative net margin of 14.95%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.06 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Appian Co. will post -0.28 earnings per share for the current year.

Appian Profile

Appian Corporation, a software company that provides low-code design platform in the United States, Mexico, Portugal, and internationally. The company's platform offers artificial intelligence, process automation, data fabric, and process mining. It provides The Appian Platform, an integrated automation platform that enables organizations to design, automate, and optimize mission-critical business processes.