Principal Financial Group Inc. Sells 2,097 Shares of Applied Digital Co. (NASDAQ:APLD)

Principal Financial Group Inc. trimmed its holdings in shares of Applied Digital Co. (NASDAQ:APLD) by 17.2% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 10,083 shares of the company’s stock after selling 2,097 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Applied Digital were worth $83,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its holdings in Applied Digital by 36.2% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 304,869 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,814,000 after buying an additional 80,958 shares in the last quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC increased its position in shares of Applied Digital by 115.7% during the second quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 66,688 shares of the company’s stock worth $397,000 after acquiring an additional 35,768 shares during the period. Rhumbline Advisers increased its position in shares of Applied Digital by 30.0% during the second quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 140,087 shares of the company’s stock worth $834,000 after acquiring an additional 32,336 shares during the period. Headlands Technologies LLC raised its stake in shares of Applied Digital by 381.8% during 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 in the last quarter. Finally, ICA Group Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in Applied Digital by 56.8% in the second quarter. ICA Group Wealth Management LLC now owns 18,750 shares of the company’s stock worth $112,000 after purchasing an additional 6,795 shares in the last quarter. 65.67% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

APLD has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. B. Riley lifted their target price on Applied Digital from $8.00 to $9.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 13th. Lake Street Capital upped their price objective on shares of Applied Digital from $7.00 to $11.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Cantor Fitzgerald assumed coverage on shares of Applied Digital in a report on Friday, December 20th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $15.00 target price on the stock. Roth Mkm reissued a “buy” rating and set a $10.00 target price on shares of Applied Digital in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Finally, Craig Hallum upped their price target on shares of Applied Digital from $10.00 to $12.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, According to MarketBeat, Applied Digital presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $11.14.

Applied Digital Stock Performance

APLD stock opened at $9.42 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $1.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -8.05 and a beta of 4.78. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $8.53 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $6.83. Applied Digital Co. has a one year low of $2.36 and a one year high of $11.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62, a quick ratio of 0.22 and a current ratio of 0.22.

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

Insider Transactions at Applied Digital

In other news, Director Richard N. Nottenburg sold 80,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $7.37, for a total transaction of $589,600.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 433,686 shares in the company, valued at $3,196,265.82. This represents a 15.57 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Wes Cummins sold 200,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $9.20, for a total transaction 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. The trade was a 4.91 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 359,369 shares of company stock valued at $3,115,161. Corporate insiders own 11.81% of the company’s stock.

Applied Digital 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.