Applied Digital (NASDAQ:APLD) Stock Price Down 8.2% After Analyst Downgrade

Applied Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:APLD)’s share price fell 8.2% during mid-day trading on Friday after B. Riley Financial lowered their price target on the stock from $75.00 to $51.00. B. Riley Financial currently has a buy rating on the stock. Applied Digital traded as low as $17.20 and last traded at $17.82. 26,468,952 shares traded hands during trading, an increase of 14% from the average daily volume of 23,135,891 shares. The stock had previously closed at $19.41.

Other equities research analysts also recently issued research reports about the stock. Rothschild & Co Redburn set a $22.00 price objective on shares of Applied Digital and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, September 21st. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Applied Digital in a research report on Monday, October 19th. Roth Capital set a $35.00 target price on Applied Digital and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 21st. Wall Street Zen cut Applied Digital from a “sell” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Sunday, August 30th. Finally, Citigroup reissued a “market outperform” rating on shares of Applied Digital in a report on Thursday, October 8th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have given a Buy rating, two have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $57.75.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Applied Digital news, Director Richard Nottenburg sold 75,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $31.15, for a total transaction of $2,336,250.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 133,378 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,154,724.70. This represents a 35.99% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Wes Cummins bought 55,803 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, October 16th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $18.04 per share, with a total value of $1,006,686.12. Following the completion of the acquisition, the chief executive officer owned 5,874,453 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $105,975,132.12. This represents a 0.96% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. 9.50% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Applied Digital

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Situational Awareness LP raised its holdings in Applied Digital by 18.9% during the first quarter. Situational Awareness LP now owns 13,478,438 shares of the company’s stock worth $319,978,000 after purchasing an additional 2,139,378 shares during the last quarter. Equitec Proprietary Markets LLC acquired a new stake in Applied Digital in the second quarter valued at $312,349,000. Hsbc Holdings PLC acquired a new stake in Applied Digital in the fourth quarter valued at $29,510,000. Sei Investments Co. grew its holdings in Applied Digital by 33.0% in the first quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 1,093,701 shares of the company’s stock valued at $25,964,000 after purchasing an additional 271,618 shares during the last quarter. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its position in shares of Applied Digital by 32.7% in the second quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 581,255 shares of the company’s stock valued at $21,681,000 after buying an additional 143,308 shares in the last quarter. 65.67% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Applied Digital Trading Down 8.2%

The firm has a market cap of $5.39 billion, a PE ratio of -10.87 and a beta of 5.99. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $24.27 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $31.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.90, a current ratio of 2.56 and a quick ratio of 2.56.

Applied Digital (NASDAQ:APLD) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 7th. The company reported ($0.01) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.30) by $0.29. Applied Digital had a negative return on equity of 27.21% and a negative net margin of 51.28%. The business had revenue of $300.39 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $116.29 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted ($0.03) EPS. The business’s revenue was up 367.8% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Applied Digital Corporation will post -2.17 EPS for the current year.

About Applied Digital

Applied Digital Corporation (NASDAQ: APLD) develops and operates digital infrastructure designed to support high-performance computing and artificial intelligence applications. The company provides data-center capacity, hosting services and related infrastructure for customers that require substantial computing power and energy resources.

Its business includes high-performance computing data centers and cloud services intended to support artificial intelligence, machine learning, cryptocurrency mining and other compute-intensive workloads.