Appian (NASDAQ:APPN) Raised to Strong-Buy at Zacks Research

Appian (NASDAQ:APPN) was upgraded by investment analysts at Zacks Research from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note issued to investors on Monday, Zacks reports.

Several other research firms have also commented on APPN. DA Davidson increased their price objective on shares of Appian from $42.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday. TD Cowen boosted their target price on shares of Appian from $30.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 3rd. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Appian from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, October 17th. William Blair upgraded shares of Appian from a “hold” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 5th. Finally, Citigroup increased their price target on shares of Appian from $40.00 to $69.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 6th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have assigned a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Appian currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $44.33.

Appian Price Performance

NASDAQ:APPN opened at $52.35 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $3.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -654.38 and a beta of 0.83. Appian has a 1 year low of $18.63 and a 1 year high of $56.38. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $41.90 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $29.77.

Appian (NASDAQ:APPN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, November 5th. The company reported $0.51 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.33 by $0.18. Appian had a negative return on equity of 43.13% and a negative net margin of 0.72%. The firm had revenue of $234.63 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $216.94 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.32 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 25.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Appian has set its FY 2026 guidance at 1.200-1.240 EPS and its Q4 2026 guidance at 0.300-0.340 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Appian will post 0.51 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Matthew Calkins sold 45,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $37.50, for a total value of $1,687,500.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 1,584,144 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $59,405,400. This represents a 2.76% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold a total of 120,000 shares of company stock worth $4,830,450 in the last quarter. Insiders own 42.81% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Appian

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. RPD Fund Management LLC purchased a new stake in Appian in the 1st quarter worth about $94,496,000. Lead Edge Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Appian by 18.5% in the first quarter. Lead Edge Capital Management LLC now owns 1,905,634 shares of the company’s stock worth $45,945,000 after purchasing an additional 296,845 shares during the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its position in shares of Appian by 16.5% during the first quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 1,519,653 shares of the company’s stock valued at $36,639,000 after buying an additional 215,183 shares during the period. First Trust Advisors LP boosted its position in shares of Appian by 16.9% during the first quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 1,355,961 shares of the company’s stock valued at $32,692,000 after buying an additional 196,021 shares during the period. Finally, Russell Investments Group Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Appian by 21.5% during the third quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 333,280 shares of the company’s stock valued at $11,764,000 after buying an additional 58,866 shares during the period. 52.70% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Appian Company Profile

Appian Corporation develops a low-code platform that helps organizations build and manage business applications and automate complex processes. Its offerings combine application development tools with capabilities for workflow automation, case management, robotic process automation, and process mining. Founded in 1999 by Matt Calkins, Appian serves businesses and government organizations in a range of industries, including financial services, insurance, healthcare, life sciences, and the public sector.