Morgan Stanley Cuts Appian (NASDAQ:APPN) Price Target to $27.00

Appian (NASDAQ:APPN) had its price target cut by Morgan Stanley from $35.00 to $27.00 in a research report report published on Wednesday morning,Benzinga reports. They currently have an equal weight rating on the stock.

Other equities research analysts also recently issued reports about the company. Scotiabank started coverage on Appian in a report on Monday, January 6th. They issued a “sector perform” rating and a $37.00 price target for the company. DA Davidson dropped their target price on shares of Appian from $40.00 to $28.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday. Finally, KeyCorp reiterated a “sector weight” rating on shares of Appian in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $35.17.

Appian Price Performance

Appian stock opened at $26.92 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -21.37 and a beta of 1.78. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $30.48 and its 200 day simple moving average is $33.59. Appian has a fifty-two week low of $24.00 and a fifty-two week high of $43.33.

Appian (NASDAQ:APPN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The company reported ($0.12) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.01) by ($0.11). Appian had a negative return on equity of 532.05% and a negative net margin of 14.95%. The firm had revenue of $166.70 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $164.31 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.06 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts predict that Appian will post -0.28 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Appian

In other Appian news, major shareholder Abdiel Capital Advisors, Lp sold 5,103 shares of Appian stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $27.02, for a total value of $137,883.06. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 9,755,116 shares in the company, valued at approximately $263,583,234.32. The trade was a 0.05 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Albert G.W. Biddle III sold 990 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $33.21, for a total transaction of $32,877.90. Following the transaction, the director now owns 29,348 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $974,647.08. This represents a 3.26 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 240,510 shares of company stock worth $6,648,635. Corporate insiders own 44.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership acquired a new position in Appian during the fourth quarter worth $4,918,000. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. grew its position in shares of Appian by 184.9% in the 4th quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 201,245 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,637,000 after acquiring an additional 130,606 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its position in shares of Appian by 418.8% in the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 160,793 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,303,000 after acquiring an additional 129,800 shares during the period. Voloridge Investment Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Appian by 222.6% during the 4th quarter. Voloridge Investment Management LLC now owns 182,965 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,034,000 after purchasing an additional 126,256 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Appian in the 4th quarter valued at about $4,046,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 52.70% of the company’s stock.

Appian Company Profile

Appian Corporation, a software company that provides low-code design platform in the United States, Mexico, Portugal, and internationally. The company's platform offers artificial intelligence, process automation, data fabric, and process mining. It provides The Appian Platform, an integrated automation platform that enables organizations to design, automate, and optimize mission-critical business processes.