Applied Digital (NASDAQ:APLD) Upgraded to Strong-Buy at Wells Fargo & Company

Applied Digital (NASDAQ:APLD) was upgraded by equities researchers at Wells Fargo & Company to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note issued on Thursday, Zacks reports.

APLD has been the subject of a number of other reports. Compass Point restated a “buy” rating and set a $70.00 price target on shares of Applied Digital in a research note on Friday, May 22nd. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $83.00 price objective on shares of Applied Digital in a report on Tuesday, July 28th. Zacks Research downgraded shares of Applied Digital from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 26th. Northland Securities set a $82.00 target price on shares of Applied Digital and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 17th. Finally, Craig Hallum upped their target price on shares of Applied Digital from $75.00 to $79.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 9th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $66.50.

Applied Digital Stock Performance

Shares of APLD opened at $26.38 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.88, a current ratio of 4.01 and a quick ratio of 4.01. Applied Digital has a one year low of $19.00 and a one year high of $50.72. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.69 billion, a P/E ratio of -29.64 and a beta of 5.72. The business has a fifty day moving average of $27.71 and a 200 day moving average of $32.67.

Applied Digital (NASDAQ:APLD) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, July 27th. The company reported ($0.39) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.09) by ($0.30). Applied Digital had a negative net margin of 37.78% and a negative return on equity of 16.42%. The firm had revenue of $240.35 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $96.85 million. During the same quarter last year, the company posted ($0.24) EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 406.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Applied Digital will post -1.09 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Richard Nottenburg sold 75,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $31.15, for a total value of $2,336,250.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 133,378 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,154,724.70. This trade represents a 35.99% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 9.50% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Situational Awareness LP increased its holdings in Applied Digital by 18.9% in the 1st quarter. Situational Awareness LP now owns 13,478,438 shares of the company’s stock worth $319,978,000 after acquiring an additional 2,139,378 shares in the last quarter. Equitec Proprietary Markets LLC purchased a new position in Applied Digital during the second quarter valued at approximately $312,349,000. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Applied Digital by 5.1% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 6,285,820 shares of the company’s stock valued at $154,151,000 after purchasing an additional 304,228 shares in the last quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC bought a new position in shares of Applied Digital in the fourth quarter worth approximately $29,510,000. Finally, Sei Investments Co. boosted its position in shares of Applied Digital by 33.0% in the first quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 1,093,701 shares of the company’s stock worth $25,964,000 after purchasing an additional 271,618 shares during the period. 65.67% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Applied Digital Company Profile

Applied Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:APLD) develops and operates digital infrastructure designed to support high-performance computing (HPC), artificial intelligence (AI) and other compute-intensive applications. The company provides data center capacity and related services to customers that require substantial computing power, connectivity and energy resources.

The company’s facilities are designed to support advanced computing workloads, including AI model development, cloud computing and digital asset-related applications.