Applied Digital (NASDAQ:APLD) Cut to Strong Sell at Zacks Research

Applied Digital (NASDAQ:APLD) was downgraded by Zacks Research from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday,Zacks.com reports.

APLD has been the subject of several other reports. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and issued a $83.00 price target on shares of Applied Digital in a research note on Tuesday, July 28th. B. Riley Financial reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $75.00 price objective (up from $66.00) on shares of Applied Digital in a research report on Monday, August 3rd. Northland Securities set a $82.00 target price on shares of Applied Digital and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 17th. Compass Point restated a “buy” rating and set a $70.00 target price on shares of Applied Digital in a research report on Friday, May 22nd. Finally, Lucid Cap Mkts raised shares of Applied Digital to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 27th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have issued a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $68.15.

Applied Digital Price Performance

Shares of Applied Digital stock opened at $27.44 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $8.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -30.83 and a beta of 5.75. The company has a quick ratio of 4.01, a current ratio of 4.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.88. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $31.29 and its 200-day simple moving average is $33.42. Applied Digital has a 52 week low of $13.16 and a 52 week high of $50.72.

Applied Digital (NASDAQ:APLD) last released its earnings results on Monday, July 27th. The company reported ($0.39) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.09) by ($0.30). The business had revenue of $240.35 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $96.85 million. Applied Digital had a negative return on equity of 16.42% and a negative net margin of 37.78%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 406.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted ($0.24) EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Applied Digital will post -1.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Richard N. Nottenburg sold 75,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $31.15, for a total transaction of $2,336,250.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 133,378 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,154,724.70. This represents a 35.99% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 9.50% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Applied Digital by 36.4% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 24,168,082 shares of the company’s stock worth $592,601,000 after purchasing an additional 6,445,908 shares during the last quarter. Situational Awareness LP lifted its position in Applied Digital by 14.1% during the second quarter. Situational Awareness LP now owns 15,384,616 shares of the company’s stock valued at $574,000 after purchasing an additional 1,906,178 shares during the last quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System lifted its position in Applied Digital by 3,718.0% during the second quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 11,121,928 shares of the company’s stock valued at $414,848,000 after purchasing an additional 10,830,623 shares during the last quarter. Equitec Proprietary Markets LLC purchased a new position in shares of Applied Digital in the 2nd quarter worth $312,349,000. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Applied Digital by 5.1% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 6,285,820 shares of the company’s stock worth $154,151,000 after buying an additional 304,228 shares in the last quarter. 65.67% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Applied Digital

Applied Digital (NASDAQ: APLD) is a technology company specializing in the development and operation of large-scale digital infrastructure and sustainable Bitcoin mining solutions. Through its integrated platform, the company designs, builds and manages turnkey data center facilities while also providing comprehensive hosting services for cloud, colocation and enterprise computing needs. Applied Digital’s modular approach to facility design enables rapid deployment of capacity and streamlined integration of power, cooling and network connectivity.

In addition to its data center business, Applied Digital operates a network of Bitcoin mining sites that leverage vertically integrated capabilities, including hardware procurement, mining farm engineering, energy management and real-time performance monitoring.