Applied Digital (NASDAQ:APLD) Shares Gap Up - Here's Why

Applied Digital Co. (NASDAQ:APLD - Get Free Report) shares gapped up prior to trading on Tuesday . The stock had previously closed at $5.26, but opened at $5.74. Applied Digital shares last traded at $5.53, with a volume of 2,011,535 shares.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

APLD has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Cantor Fitzgerald reduced their price objective on Applied Digital from $15.00 to $14.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. Northland Securities lifted their target price on Applied Digital from $12.00 to $20.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. HC Wainwright raised their price target on Applied Digital from $10.00 to $12.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, January 15th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a $11.00 target price on shares of Applied Digital in a research note on Monday, February 24th. Finally, Compass Point initiated coverage on shares of Applied Digital in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. They set a "buy" rating and a $10.00 price objective for the company. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Buy" and a consensus price target of $12.11.

Applied Digital Stock Performance

The company has a current ratio of 0.77, a quick ratio of 0.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.22. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $7.16 and a 200 day simple moving average of $7.92. The stock has a market cap of $1.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -3.18 and a beta of 5.18.

Applied Digital (NASDAQ:APLD - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 14th. The company reported ($0.06) earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 business had revenue of $63.87 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $62.41 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted ($0.05) earnings per share. Applied Digital's revenue for the quarter was up 51.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Applied Digital Co. will post -0.96 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Applied Digital

In other Applied Digital news, Director Richard N. Nottenburg sold 20,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $8.85, for a total value of $177,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 342,923 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,034,868.55. This represents a 5.51 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 11.81% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Applied Digital

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Hood River Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Applied Digital by 10.7% in the fourth quarter. Hood River Capital Management LLC now owns 15,147,422 shares of the company's stock worth $115,726,000 after acquiring an additional 1,464,854 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Applied Digital by 39.1% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 12,760,035 shares of the company's stock worth $97,487,000 after buying an additional 3,587,619 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Applied Digital by 54.4% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,726,495 shares of the company's stock valued at $36,117,000 after buying an additional 1,665,335 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its holdings in shares of Applied Digital by 113.8% during the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 4,404,313 shares of the company's stock worth $33,649,000 after acquiring an additional 2,344,572 shares during the period. Finally, Pertento Partners LLP lifted its position in Applied Digital by 49.0% in the 4th quarter. Pertento Partners LLP now owns 2,528,717 shares of the company's stock valued at $19,319,000 after acquiring an additional 831,705 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors 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.