Applied Digital (NASDAQ:APLD) Shares Up 1.3% – Still a Buy?

Applied Digital Co. (NASDAQ:APLD) shares rose 1.3% on Wednesday . The company traded as high as $7.11 and last traded at $7.01. Approximately 6,582,229 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 77% from the average daily volume of 28,320,756 shares. The stock had previously closed at $6.92.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

APLD has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. HC Wainwright increased their price objective on Applied Digital from $10.00 to $12.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 15th. Northland Securities boosted their target price 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. Cantor Fitzgerald cut their price target on Applied Digital from $15.00 to $14.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 15th. Compass Point initiated coverage on shares of Applied Digital in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. They set a “buy” rating and a $10.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $11.00 price target on shares of Applied Digital in a research note on Monday, February 24th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $12.11.

Applied Digital Stock Up 3.7 %

The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $8.29 and a 200 day moving average price of $7.71. 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 $1.62 billion, a P/E ratio of -4.20 and a beta of 4.69.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Richard N. Nottenburg sold 20,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $8.85, for a total value of $177,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 342,923 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,034,868.55. This trade represents a 5.51 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 11.81% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in APLD. Private Advisor Group LLC boosted its position in shares of Applied Digital by 159.7% in the third quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 38,700 shares of the company’s stock valued at $319,000 after acquiring an additional 23,800 shares during the period. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC bought a new position in Applied Digital in the 3rd quarter valued at $88,000. Beacon Harbor Wealth Advisors Inc. bought a new position in Applied Digital in the 3rd quarter valued at $83,000. Victory Capital Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Applied Digital by 72.5% during the 3rd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 19,535 shares of the company’s stock valued at $161,000 after purchasing an additional 8,212 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Royce & Associates LP increased its holdings in shares of Applied Digital by 1.4% in the third quarter. Royce & Associates LP now owns 1,132,140 shares of the company’s stock worth $9,340,000 after purchasing an additional 15,763 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 65.67% of the company’s stock.

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.