Applied Digital (NASDAQ:APLD) Shares Gap Up – Still a Buy?

Applied Digital Co. (NASDAQ:APLD)’s share price gapped up prior to trading on Monday . The stock had previously closed at $9.85, but opened at $10.37. Applied Digital shares last traded at $10.39, with a volume of 3,286,730 shares changing hands.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on APLD shares. HC Wainwright lifted their target price on shares of Applied Digital from $5.00 to $10.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. B. Riley upped their price objective on Applied Digital from $8.00 to $9.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 13th. Craig Hallum boosted their price target on Applied Digital from $10.00 to $12.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Roth Mkm reissued a “buy” rating and set a $10.00 price objective on shares of Applied Digital in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and issued a $11.00 target price on shares of Applied Digital in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, According to MarketBeat, Applied Digital has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $10.50.

Applied Digital Stock Performance

The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $7.56 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $5.80. The company has a market capitalization of $2.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -9.13 and a beta of 4.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62, a current ratio of 0.22 and a quick ratio of 0.22.

Applied Digital (NASDAQ:APLD) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, October 9th. The company reported ($0.15) earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.28) by $0.13. The company had revenue of $60.70 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $54.85 million. Applied Digital had a negative net margin of 74.95% and a negative return on equity of 88.87%. The company’s revenue was up 67.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted ($0.10) earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that Applied Digital Co. will post -0.4 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other Applied Digital news, Director Douglas S. Miller sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $5.50, for a total transaction of $55,000.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 218,506 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,201,783. This trade represents a 4.38 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Richard N. Nottenburg sold 19,369 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $7.51, for a total value of $145,461.19. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 384,317 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,886,220.67. This trade represents a 4.80 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 119,369 shares of company stock valued at $870,161. 11.81% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Applied Digital

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of APLD. Headlands Technologies LLC increased its stake in Applied Digital by 381.8% during the 2nd quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC now owns 8,749 shares of the company’s stock worth $52,000 after purchasing an additional 6,933 shares in the last quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank bought a new stake in shares of Applied Digital during the third quarter worth $59,000. ARS Investment Partners LLC bought a new stake in Applied Digital in the 2nd quarter valued at $60,000. Beacon Harbor Wealth Advisors Inc. bought a new position in Applied Digital during the 3rd quarter worth about $83,000. Finally, Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Applied Digital in the 3rd quarter valued at about $88,000. 65.67% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.