Applied Digital Co. (NASDAQ:APLD) Short Interest Up 14.7% in December

Applied Digital Co. (NASDAQ:APLD) was the recipient of a large growth in short interest during the month of December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 49,100,000 shares, a growth of 14.7% from the December 15th total of 42,790,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 15,910,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 3.1 days. Currently, 30.8% of the company’s stock are sold short.

Applied Digital Stock Down 3.9 %

APLD traded down $0.35 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $8.63. 12,568,754 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 23,372,543. 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 company has a market cap of $1.82 billion, a PE ratio of -7.38 and a beta of 4.78. Applied Digital has a one year low of $2.36 and a one year high of $11.25. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $8.79 and its 200-day simple moving average is $6.96.

Applied Digital (NASDAQ:APLD) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 14th. The company reported ($0.06) earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.14) by $0.08. Applied Digital had a negative return on equity of 88.87% and a negative net margin of 74.95%. The company had revenue of $63.87 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $62.41 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned ($0.05) earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 51.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Applied Digital will post -0.4 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Applied Digital

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in APLD. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Applied Digital by 16.8% in the 4th quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 11,774 shares of the company’s stock valued at $90,000 after buying an additional 1,692 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its holdings in shares of Applied Digital by 8.8% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 37,411 shares of the company’s stock valued at $309,000 after buying an additional 3,040 shares during the period. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its position in shares of Applied Digital by 14.4% during the third quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 43,064 shares of the company’s stock worth $355,000 after acquiring an additional 5,423 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its holdings in shares of Applied Digital by 99.1% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 13,071 shares of the company’s stock worth $108,000 after acquiring an additional 6,507 shares during the period. Finally, Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank bought a new stake in Applied Digital in the 3rd quarter valued at $59,000. 65.67% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on APLD. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and set a $11.00 price objective on shares of Applied Digital in a research note on Wednesday. Cantor Fitzgerald cut their price target on shares of Applied Digital from $15.00 to $14.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday. Lake Street Capital increased 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. Roth Mkm reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $10.00 price target on shares of Applied Digital in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Finally, Craig Hallum upped their price objective on shares of Applied Digital from $10.00 to $12.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $11.29.

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.