Applied Digital (NASDAQ:APLD) Shares Up 5.4% – Time to Buy?

Applied Digital Co. (NASDAQ:APLD)’s share price traded up 5.4% during mid-day trading on Wednesday . The stock traded as high as $6.42 and last traded at $6.42. 9,086,554 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 65% from the average session volume of 26,077,461 shares. The stock had previously closed at $6.09.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on APLD shares. Cantor Fitzgerald dropped their target price on shares of Applied Digital from $15.00 to $14.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 15th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $11.00 target price on shares of Applied Digital in a research report on Monday, February 24th. HC Wainwright raised their price target on Applied Digital from $10.00 to $12.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 15th. Compass Point began coverage on Applied Digital in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. They set a “buy” rating and a $10.00 target price for the company. Finally, Northland Securities increased their price objective on shares of Applied Digital from $12.00 to $20.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $12.11.

Applied Digital Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.22, a quick ratio of 0.77 and a current ratio of 0.77. The company has a market capitalization of $1.43 billion, a P/E ratio of -3.71 and a beta of 4.69. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $7.63 and its 200 day moving average is $8.01.

Applied Digital (NASDAQ:APLD) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 14th. The company reported ($0.06) earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $62.41 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted ($0.05) earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 51.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts predict that Applied Digital Co. will post -0.96 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other Applied Digital news, Director Richard N. Nottenburg sold 20,000 shares of Applied Digital stock in a transaction on 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 directly owns 342,923 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,034,868.55. The trade was a 5.51 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders own 11.81% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Applied Digital

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in APLD. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Applied Digital by 39.1% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 12,760,035 shares of the company’s stock valued at $97,487,000 after purchasing an additional 3,587,619 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp increased its holdings in Applied Digital by 113.8% during the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 4,404,313 shares of the company’s stock valued at $33,649,000 after buying an additional 2,344,572 shares during the period. Tidal Investments LLC raised its stake in Applied Digital by 14,635.7% in the fourth quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 1,697,850 shares of the company’s stock worth $12,972,000 after buying an additional 1,686,328 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. purchased a new stake in Applied Digital during the fourth quarter worth $12,843,000. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Applied Digital by 54.4% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,726,495 shares of the company’s stock valued at $36,117,000 after acquiring an additional 1,665,335 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 65.67% of the company’s stock.

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.