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

Applied Digital Co. (NASDAQ:APLD) was the recipient of unusually large options trading on Monday. Traders purchased 57,267 call options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 108% compared to the typical daily volume of 27,595 call options.

Applied Digital Price Performance

Shares of APLD opened at $7.75 on Tuesday. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $1.67 billion, a PE ratio of -7.14 and a beta of 4.65. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $7.29 and a 200 day simple moving average of $5.59. Applied Digital has a 52-week low of $2.36 and a 52-week high of $9.48.

Applied Digital (NASDAQ:APLD) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 9th. The company reported ($0.15) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 firm’s revenue was up 67.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned ($0.10) earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that Applied Digital will post -0.4 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Richard N. Nottenburg sold 80,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $7.37, for a total value of $589,600.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 433,686 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,196,265.82. This trade represents a 15.57 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Douglas S. Miller sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $5.50, for a total transaction of $55,000.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 218,506 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,201,783. This trade represents a 4.38 % 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 corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Applied Digital

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Swiss National Bank boosted its position in Applied Digital by 23.2% during the 1st quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 180,600 shares of the company’s stock worth $773,000 after acquiring an additional 34,000 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Applied Digital by 70.2% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,176,073 shares of the company’s stock worth $26,434,000 after purchasing an additional 2,547,485 shares during the last quarter. Vident Advisory LLC boosted its holdings in Applied Digital by 26.7% during the first quarter. Vident Advisory LLC now owns 750,005 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,210,000 after purchasing an additional 157,819 shares during the last quarter. JT Stratford LLC grew its position in Applied Digital by 157.5% in the first quarter. JT Stratford LLC now owns 308,626 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,321,000 after purchasing an additional 188,779 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Hood River Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Applied Digital by 2.8% in the 1st quarter. Hood River Capital Management LLC now owns 8,824,532 shares of the company’s stock valued at $37,769,000 after buying an additional 240,177 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 65.67% of the company’s stock.

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.