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

Applied Digital Co. (NASDAQ:APLD) was the recipient of some unusual options trading activity on Wednesday. Investors bought 52,466 call options on the stock. This is an increase of 16% compared to the average daily volume of 45,142 call options.

Insider Buying and Selling at Applied Digital

In other Applied Digital news, CEO Wes Cummins sold 200,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 3,875,955 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $35,658,786. This trade represents a 4.91 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director Richard N. Nottenburg sold 19,369 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $7.51, for a total transaction of $145,461.19. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 384,317 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,886,220.67. The trade was a 4.80 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 269,369 shares of company stock valued at $2,445,461 in the last three months. Company insiders own 11.81% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Applied Digital

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of APLD. Headlands Technologies LLC increased its position in shares of Applied Digital by 381.8% in the second quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC now owns 8,749 shares of the company’s stock valued at $52,000 after acquiring an additional 6,933 shares during the period. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank purchased a new position in shares of Applied Digital in the third quarter valued at about $59,000. Beacon Harbor Wealth Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Applied Digital in the third quarter valued at about $83,000. Gunderson Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Applied Digital during the 4th quarter valued at about $83,000. Finally, Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC bought a new stake in shares of Applied Digital during the 3rd quarter valued at about $88,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 65.67% of the company’s stock.

Applied Digital Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:APLD opened at $8.37 on Thursday. The company’s fifty day moving average is $8.77 and its 200 day moving average is $6.95. Applied Digital has a 52 week low of $2.36 and a 52 week high of $11.25. The stock has a market cap of $1.77 billion, a PE ratio of -7.15 and a beta of 4.78. The company has a quick ratio of 0.22, a current ratio of 0.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62.

Applied Digital (NASDAQ:APLD) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 14th. The company reported ($0.06) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.14) by $0.08. Applied Digital had a negative net margin of 74.95% and a negative return on equity of 88.87%. The firm 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 company earned ($0.05) earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 51.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate that Applied Digital will post -0.4 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently weighed in on APLD. HC Wainwright raised their price objective on shares of Applied Digital from $10.00 to $12.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Cantor Fitzgerald lowered their price objective on shares of Applied Digital from $15.00 to $14.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. Craig Hallum raised their price objective on shares of Applied Digital from $10.00 to $12.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Lake Street Capital raised their price objective on shares of Applied Digital from $7.00 to $11.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Finally, Roth Mkm restated a “buy” rating and set a $10.00 price objective on shares of Applied Digital in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $11.29.

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.