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

Applied Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:APLD)’s stock price gapped up before the market opened on Thursday . The stock had previously closed at $23.09, but opened at $25.94. Applied Digital shares last traded at $24.92, with a volume of 11,161,481 shares traded.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently weighed in on APLD. HC Wainwright upped their target price on shares of Applied Digital from $20.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 10th. Northland Securities boosted their price target on Applied Digital to $40.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, October 10th. Citigroup reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Applied Digital in a research note on Thursday, October 9th. Lake Street Capital lifted their price objective on Applied Digital from $18.00 to $37.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 10th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Applied Digital in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have issued a Buy rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $26.20.

Applied Digital Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a quick ratio of 0.65 and a current ratio of 0.65. The company has a market cap of $7.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -22.08 and a beta of 6.77. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $27.95 and its 200 day moving average price is $17.05.

Applied Digital (NASDAQ:APLD) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, October 9th. The company reported ($0.03) EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.11) by $0.08. Applied Digital had a negative net margin of 111.29% and a negative return on equity of 37.14%. The company had revenue of $64.22 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $52.25 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted ($0.15) EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 84.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Applied Digital Corporation will post -0.96 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Wes Cummins sold 400,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $15.26, for a total transaction of $6,104,000.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,659,379 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $40,582,123.54. This trade represents a 13.07% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Richard N. Nottenburg sold 34,375 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, October 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $33.23, for a total value of $1,142,281.25. Following the sale, the director directly owned 263,612 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,759,826.76. This represents a 11.54% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 823,035 shares of company stock worth $18,930,179 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 9.50% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Applied Digital

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Atlantic Union Bankshares Corp acquired a new stake in shares of Applied Digital in the second quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Larson Financial Group LLC increased its stake in Applied Digital by 56,450.0% in the 3rd quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 1,131 shares of the company’s stock valued at $26,000 after buying an additional 1,129 shares during the last quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. acquired a new position in shares of Applied Digital during the 2nd quarter worth about $26,000. Dagco Inc. bought a new position in shares of Applied Digital in the 3rd quarter valued at about $27,000. Finally, PNC Financial Services Group Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Applied Digital in the first quarter valued at about $28,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.