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

Applied Digital Co. (NASDAQ:APLD - Get Free Report) gapped up before the market opened on Friday . The stock had previously closed at $7.91, but opened at $8.34. Applied Digital shares last traded at $8.54, with a volume of 9,657,642 shares traded.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have issued reports on APLD shares. Cantor Fitzgerald cut their price target on shares of Applied Digital from $15.00 to $14.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. HC Wainwright upped their price target on shares of Applied Digital from $10.00 to $12.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. Needham & Company LLC restated a "buy" rating and set a $11.00 price target on shares of Applied Digital in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. Compass Point started coverage on shares of Applied Digital in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. They set a "buy" rating and a $10.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Northland Securities upped their price target on shares of Applied Digital from $12.00 to $20.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus price target of $12.11.

Applied Digital Price Performance

The stock's fifty day moving average is $8.40 and its 200-day moving average is $7.32. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.03 billion, a PE ratio of -5.27 and a beta of 4.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.22, a current ratio of 0.77 and a quick ratio of 0.77.

Applied Digital (NASDAQ:APLD - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 14th. The company reported ($0.06) earnings per share (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 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 firm posted ($0.05) earnings per share. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 51.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts predict that Applied Digital Co. will post -0.96 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 stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $9.20, for a total value of $1,840,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 3,875,955 shares in the company, valued at $35,658,786. This represents a 4.91 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director Richard N. Nottenburg sold 50,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $9.20, for a total transaction of $460,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 334,317 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,075,716.40. This trade represents a 13.01 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 270,000 shares of company stock valued at $2,477,000 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 11.81% of the company's stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Applied Digital

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Vontobel Holding Ltd. increased its position in Applied Digital by 9.8% during the fourth quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. now owns 16,735 shares of the company's stock worth $128,000 after purchasing an additional 1,500 shares during the last quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC increased its position in Applied Digital by 16.8% during the fourth quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 11,774 shares of the company's stock worth $90,000 after purchasing an additional 1,692 shares during the last quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB increased its position in Applied Digital by 100.0% during the fourth quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB now owns 4,000 shares of the company's stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 2,000 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position in Applied Digital by 8.8% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 37,411 shares of the company's stock worth $309,000 after purchasing an additional 3,040 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Amalgamated Bank increased its position in Applied Digital by 113.3% during the fourth quarter. Amalgamated Bank now owns 6,538 shares of the company's stock worth $50,000 after purchasing an additional 3,473 shares during the last quarter. 65.67% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.