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

Applied Digital Co. (NASDAQ:APLD)’s share price gapped up prior to trading on Tuesday . The stock had previously closed at $7.75, but opened at $7.93. Applied Digital shares last traded at $8.77, with a volume of 3,500,361 shares traded.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

APLD has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Roth Mkm restated a “buy” rating and issued a $10.00 price target on shares of Applied Digital in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and issued a $11.00 price target on shares of Applied Digital in a report on Friday, November 1st. HC Wainwright increased their price target on Applied Digital from $5.00 to $10.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. Craig Hallum increased their price target on Applied Digital from $10.00 to $12.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Finally, Lake Street Capital increased their price objective on Applied Digital from $7.00 to $11.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, According to data from MarketBeat.com, Applied Digital currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $10.50.

Applied Digital Stock Down 4.4 %

The firm has a 50-day moving average of $7.37 and a 200 day moving average of $5.67. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62, a current ratio of 0.22 and a quick ratio of 0.22. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -7.92 and a beta of 4.65.

Applied Digital (NASDAQ:APLD) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 9th. The company reported ($0.15) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.28) by $0.13. Applied Digital had a negative return on equity of 88.87% and a negative net margin of 74.95%. The company had revenue of $60.70 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $54.85 million. During the same period last year, the firm posted ($0.10) earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 67.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Applied Digital Co. will post -0.4 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Douglas S. Miller sold 10,000 shares of Applied Digital stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $8.01, for a total transaction of $80,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 208,506 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,670,133.06. This trade represents a 4.58 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Richard N. Nottenburg sold 80,000 shares of Applied Digital stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $7.37, for a total value of $589,600.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 433,686 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,196,265.82. The trade was a 15.57 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 119,369 shares of company stock valued at $870,161 over the last three months. Insiders own 11.81% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Applied Digital

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in APLD. Swiss National Bank lifted its holdings in Applied Digital by 23.2% during the 1st quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 180,600 shares of the company’s stock worth $773,000 after purchasing an additional 34,000 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Applied Digital by 70.2% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,176,073 shares of the company’s stock worth $26,434,000 after acquiring an additional 2,547,485 shares during the period. Vident Advisory LLC increased its stake in Applied Digital by 26.7% during the 1st quarter. Vident Advisory LLC now owns 750,005 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,210,000 after acquiring an additional 157,819 shares during the period. Hood River Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Applied Digital by 2.8% during the 1st quarter. Hood River Capital Management LLC now owns 8,824,532 shares of the company’s stock worth $37,769,000 after acquiring an additional 240,177 shares during the period. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake in Applied Digital by 15.3% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 24,018 shares of the company’s stock worth $103,000 after acquiring an additional 3,182 shares during the period. 65.67% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Applied Digital

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.