Applied Digital (NASDAQ:APLD) Shares Up 16.1% – Should You Buy?

Applied Digital Co. (NASDAQ:APLD)’s share price shot up 16.1% on Friday . The company traded as high as $6.72 and last traded at $6.49. 27,515,479 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 7% from the average session volume of 29,440,033 shares. The stock had previously closed at $5.59.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on APLD. Northland Securities boosted their target price on shares of Applied Digital from $12.00 to $20.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $10.00 price target on shares of Applied Digital in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. HC Wainwright cut their price target on shares of Applied Digital from $12.00 to $7.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 15th. Cantor Fitzgerald cut their price target on shares of Applied Digital from $14.00 to $7.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 15th. Finally, Compass Point initiated coverage on shares of Applied Digital in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. They set a “buy” rating and a $10.00 price target on the stock. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $10.67.

Applied Digital Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.22, a quick ratio of 0.77 and a current ratio of 0.77. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.53 billion, a P/E ratio of -3.95 and a beta of 5.98. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $5.54 and its 200 day simple moving average is $7.39.

Applied Digital (NASDAQ:APLD) last issued its earnings results on Monday, April 14th. The company reported ($0.16) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.11) by ($0.05). The company had revenue of $52.92 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $62.91 million. Applied Digital had a negative return on equity of 117.67% and a negative net margin of 127.86%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned ($0.24) earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Applied Digital Co. will post -0.96 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Applied Digital

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in APLD. Situational Awareness LP purchased a new stake in shares of Applied Digital in the 1st quarter worth approximately $22,680,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Applied Digital by 39.1% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 12,760,035 shares of the company’s stock worth $97,487,000 after purchasing an additional 3,587,619 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its position in shares of Applied Digital by 113.8% in the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 4,404,313 shares of the company’s stock worth $33,649,000 after purchasing an additional 2,344,572 shares during the period. Tidal Investments LLC lifted its position in shares of Applied Digital by 14,635.7% in the 4th quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 1,697,850 shares of the company’s stock worth $12,972,000 after purchasing an additional 1,686,328 shares during the period. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Applied Digital in the 4th quarter worth approximately $12,843,000. 65.67% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.