Applied Digital Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NASDAQ:APLD)

Applied Digital Co. (NASDAQ:APLD - Get Free Report) was the target of some unusual options trading on Friday. Investors bought 73,653 call options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 63% compared to the average daily volume of 45,278 call options.

Applied Digital Stock Up 15.2 %

NASDAQ:APLD traded up $1.20 on Monday, reaching $9.11. The stock had a trading volume of 42,892,479 shares, compared to its average volume of 25,388,150. The company has a 50-day moving average of $8.40 and a 200 day moving average of $7.32. 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 stock has a market cap of $2.03 billion, a P/E ratio of -5.27 and a beta of 4.77. Applied Digital has a 12-month low of $2.36 and a 12-month high of $11.25.

Applied Digital (NASDAQ:APLD - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 14th. The company reported ($0.06) EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.14) by $0.08. Applied Digital had a negative return on equity of 117.67% and a negative net margin of 127.86%. The firm had revenue of $63.87 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $62.41 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted ($0.05) earnings per share. Applied Digital's revenue for the quarter was up 51.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts predict that Applied Digital will post -0.96 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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. HC Wainwright lifted their price target on shares of Applied Digital from $10.00 to $12.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 15th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a "buy" rating and set a $11.00 price objective on shares of Applied Digital in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. Compass Point initiated coverage on shares of Applied Digital in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. They issued a "buy" rating and a $10.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Northland Securities upped their price target on shares of Applied Digital from $12.00 to $20.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Buy" and a consensus target price of $12.11.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Wes Cummins sold 200,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 3,875,955 shares of the company's stock, valued at $35,658,786. The trade was a 4.91 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director Richard N. Nottenburg sold 20,000 shares of the 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 in the company, valued at $3,034,868.55. This trade represents a 5.51 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 270,000 shares of company stock valued at $2,477,000 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 11.81% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Applied Digital

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in APLD. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB grew its holdings in Applied Digital by 100.0% during the 4th quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB now owns 4,000 shares of the company's stock worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 2,000 shares in the last quarter. R Squared Ltd bought a new position in shares of Applied Digital during the fourth quarter worth about $36,000. US Bancorp DE acquired a new position in Applied Digital in the fourth quarter worth about $37,000. Jones Financial Companies Lllp bought a new stake in Applied Digital in the fourth quarter valued at about $39,000. Finally, Spire Wealth Management acquired a new stake in Applied Digital during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $43,000. 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.