Applied Digital Co. (NASDAQ:APLD) Sees Significant Increase in Short Interest

Applied Digital Co. (NASDAQ:APLD) was the target of a large growth in short interest during the month of January. As of January 15th, there was short interest totalling 49,100,000 shares, a growth of 14.7% from the December 31st total of 42,790,000 shares. Currently, 30.8% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 15,910,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.1 days.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have commented on APLD. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and set a $11.00 price objective on shares of Applied Digital in a report on Wednesday, January 15th. Craig Hallum increased their price objective on Applied Digital from $10.00 to $12.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Lake Street Capital raised their price target on Applied Digital from $7.00 to $11.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 10th. HC Wainwright lifted their price target on Applied Digital from $10.00 to $12.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 15th. Finally, Roth Mkm reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $10.00 price objective on shares of Applied Digital in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, According to MarketBeat, Applied Digital currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $11.13.

Applied Digital Price Performance

Shares of Applied Digital stock opened at $7.12 on Monday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $8.80 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $7.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.22, a current ratio of 0.77 and a quick ratio of 0.77. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.59 billion, a P/E ratio of -4.12 and a beta of 4.78. Applied Digital has a 12 month low of $2.36 and a 12 month high of $11.25.

Applied Digital (NASDAQ:APLD) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 14th. The company reported ($0.06) EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.14) by $0.08. The business had revenue of $63.87 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $62.41 million. Applied Digital had a negative return on equity of 117.67% and a negative net margin of 127.86%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 51.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned ($0.05) EPS. As a group, analysts predict that Applied Digital will post -0.96 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Applied Digital

In other Applied Digital news, Director Richard N. Nottenburg sold 19,369 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $7.51, for a total transaction of $145,461.19. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 384,317 shares in the company, valued at $2,886,220.67. This trade represents a 4.80 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Wes Cummins sold 200,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $9.20, for a total value of $1,840,000.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 3,875,955 shares in the company, valued at approximately $35,658,786. This trade represents a 4.91 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 289,369 shares of company stock valued at $2,622,461 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 11.81% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Applied Digital

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its position in shares of Applied Digital by 113.8% during the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 4,404,313 shares of the company’s stock worth $33,649,000 after purchasing an additional 2,344,572 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Applied Digital by 48.7% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,061,160 shares of the company’s stock valued at $25,258,000 after acquiring an additional 1,002,862 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC increased its stake in Applied Digital by 736.8% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 486,577 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,014,000 after purchasing an additional 428,428 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Applied Digital by 14.0% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,337,267 shares of the company’s stock worth $19,282,000 after purchasing an additional 286,852 shares during the period. Finally, Exchange Traded Concepts LLC increased its position in Applied Digital by 37.6% during the 4th quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 1,002,090 shares of the company’s stock worth $7,656,000 after purchasing an additional 273,666 shares during the period. 65.67% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Applied Digital Company Profile

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.