Applied Digital (NASDAQ:APLD) Shares Gap Down – Time to Sell?

Applied Digital Co. (NASDAQ:APLD) shares gapped down before the market opened on Monday . The stock had previously closed at $4.92, but opened at $4.40. Applied Digital shares last traded at $4.39, with a volume of 2,706,967 shares.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently weighed in on APLD shares. Compass Point began coverage on shares of Applied Digital in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $10.00 target price on the stock. Cantor Fitzgerald dropped their price objective on Applied Digital from $15.00 to $14.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. Northland Securities upped their target price on Applied Digital from $12.00 to $20.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. HC Wainwright increased their price objective on shares of Applied Digital from $10.00 to $12.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $11.00 price target on shares of Applied Digital in a report on Monday, February 24th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $12.11.

Applied Digital Price Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $1.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -3.04 and a beta of 5.18. The company has a current ratio of 0.77, a quick ratio of 0.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.22. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $7.40 and its 200-day simple moving average is $8.00.

Applied Digital (NASDAQ:APLD) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 14th. The company reported ($0.06) earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.14) by $0.08. Applied Digital had a negative return on equity of 117.67% and a negative net margin of 127.86%. The company had revenue of $63.87 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $62.41 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted ($0.05) EPS. Applied Digital’s revenue was up 51.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts predict that Applied Digital Co. will post -0.96 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Richard N. Nottenburg sold 20,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $8.85, for a total value of $177,000.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 342,923 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,034,868.55. This trade represents a 5.51 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 11.81% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Applied Digital

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in APLD. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Applied Digital by 39.1% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 12,760,035 shares of the company’s stock valued at $97,487,000 after buying an additional 3,587,619 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp grew its position in Applied Digital by 113.8% in the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 4,404,313 shares of the company’s stock valued at $33,649,000 after acquiring an additional 2,344,572 shares in the last quarter. Tidal Investments LLC boosted its stake in shares of Applied Digital by 14,635.7% in the fourth quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 1,697,850 shares of the company’s stock valued at $12,972,000 after purchasing an additional 1,686,328 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. purchased a new stake in Applied Digital during the 4th quarter worth $12,843,000. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Applied Digital by 54.4% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,726,495 shares of the company’s stock worth $36,117,000 after buying an additional 1,665,335 shares in the last quarter. 65.67% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Applied Digital

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.