Applied Digital (NASDAQ:APLD) Shares Up 15.8% on Better-Than-Expected Earnings

Applied Digital Co. (NASDAQ:APLD) was up 15.8% during mid-day trading on Tuesday following a stronger than expected earnings report. The company traded as high as $9.72 and last traded at $9.00. Approximately 38,717,260 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 116% from the average daily volume of 17,919,533 shares. The stock had previously closed at $7.77.

The company reported ($0.06) earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.14) by $0.08. The business had revenue of $63.87 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $62.41 million. Applied Digital had a negative net margin of 74.95% and a negative return on equity of 88.87%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 51.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted ($0.05) earnings per share.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts recently commented on the company. Lake Street Capital boosted their price target on Applied Digital from $7.00 to $11.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Cantor Fitzgerald lowered their target price on shares of Applied Digital from $15.00 to $14.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $11.00 target price on shares of Applied Digital in a research report on Wednesday. Roth Mkm restated a “buy” rating and issued a $10.00 price target on shares of Applied Digital in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Finally, Craig Hallum raised their price objective on shares of Applied Digital from $10.00 to $12.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $11.29.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Wes Cummins sold 200,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 27th. The stock was 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 owns 3,875,955 shares in the company, valued at $35,658,786. The trade was a 4.91 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director Richard N. Nottenburg sold 19,369 shares of the firm’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 transaction, the director now owns 384,317 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,886,220.67. This represents a 4.80 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 269,369 shares of company stock valued at $2,445,461 in the last 90 days. 11.81% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Applied Digital

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. SeaCrest Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Applied Digital during the 4th quarter worth approximately $586,000. Gunderson Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in Applied Digital in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $83,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in Applied Digital by 18.4% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 56,355 shares of the company’s stock worth $465,000 after acquiring an additional 8,774 shares during the period. Tidal Investments LLC bought a new stake in shares of Applied Digital during the 3rd quarter valued at $95,000. Finally, Virtu Financial LLC acquired a new position in shares of Applied Digital in the 3rd quarter valued at $2,030,000. 65.67% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Applied Digital Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62, a quick ratio of 0.22 and a current ratio of 0.22. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $8.79 and a 200-day moving average price of $6.96. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.90 billion, a P/E ratio of -7.68 and a beta of 4.78.

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.