Applied Digital (NASDAQ:APLD) Shares Up 3.5% – Still a Buy?

Applied Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:APLD)’s stock price shot up 3.5% during trading on Wednesday . The company traded as high as $33.10 and last traded at $32.43. 16,935,848 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 37% from the average session volume of 26,697,723 shares. The stock had previously closed at $31.32.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently commented on APLD. B. Riley Financial lifted their price target on Applied Digital to $53.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 9th. Lake Street Capital reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $45.00 target price on shares of Applied Digital in a report on Tuesday, December 30th. Zacks Research cut shares of Applied Digital from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 8th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $41.00 target price on shares of Applied Digital in a report on Thursday, January 8th. Finally, Northland Securities set a $56.00 target price on shares of Applied Digital in a report on Wednesday, January 28th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have issued a Buy rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Applied Digital currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $42.78.

Applied Digital Stock Up 3.5%

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.65, a current ratio of 2.38 and a quick ratio of 2.38. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $28.35 and its 200-day simple moving average is $29.87. The stock has a market cap of $9.27 billion, a P/E ratio of -43.82 and a beta of 7.25.

Applied Digital (NASDAQ:APLD) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, April 8th. The company reported ($0.36) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.13) by ($0.23). Applied Digital had a negative return on equity of 15.91% and a negative net margin of 52.84%.The business had revenue of $108.55 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $78.47 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned ($0.08) EPS. The business’s revenue was up 139.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts anticipate that Applied Digital Corporation will post -0.52 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Applied Digital

In other news, Director Chuck Hastings sold 45,987 shares of Applied Digital stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $38.57, for a total transaction of $1,773,718.59. Following the sale, the director owned 388,372 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,979,508.04. The trade was a 10.59% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Company insiders own 9.50% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Applied Digital

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky bought a new stake in shares of Applied Digital during the third quarter valued at approximately $994,000. Federated Hermes Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Applied Digital during the third quarter valued at approximately $3,204,000. AlphaQuest LLC bought a new stake in shares of Applied Digital during the third quarter valued at approximately $1,369,000. MRA Advisory Group bought a new stake in shares of Applied Digital during the third quarter valued at approximately $978,000. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Applied Digital by 23.2% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 17,722,174 shares of the company’s stock valued at $406,547,000 after buying an additional 3,339,062 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 65.67% of the company’s stock.

Applied Digital Company Profile

Applied Digital (NASDAQ: APLD) is a technology company specializing in the development and operation of large-scale digital infrastructure and sustainable Bitcoin mining solutions. Through its integrated platform, the company designs, builds and manages turnkey data center facilities while also providing comprehensive hosting services for cloud, colocation and enterprise computing needs. Applied Digital’s modular approach to facility design enables rapid deployment of capacity and streamlined integration of power, cooling and network connectivity.

In addition to its data center business, Applied Digital operates a network of Bitcoin mining sites that leverage vertically integrated capabilities, including hardware procurement, mining farm engineering, energy management and real-time performance monitoring.