Wall Street Zen Upgrades Applied Digital (NASDAQ:APLD) to Sell

Applied Digital (NASDAQ:APLD) was upgraded by analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “strong sell” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Saturday.

A number of other research analysts have also recently commented on APLD. Zacks Research raised shares of Applied Digital from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, July 27th. Lucid Cap Mkts raised shares of Applied Digital to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 27th. Craig Hallum upped their price objective on shares of Applied Digital from $75.00 to $79.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 9th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Applied Digital in a research note on Tuesday, July 21st. Finally, 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. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Buy rating, two have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $68.15.

Applied Digital Price Performance

Applied Digital stock opened at $27.21 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.88, a quick ratio of 4.01 and a current ratio of 4.01. Applied Digital has a 52 week low of $13.16 and a 52 week high of $50.72. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.93 billion, a P/E ratio of -30.57 and a beta of 5.75. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $32.78 and a 200-day moving average of $33.57.

Applied Digital (NASDAQ:APLD) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, July 27th. The company reported ($0.39) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate 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 business had revenue of $240.35 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $96.85 million. During the same period last year, the business earned ($0.24) earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 406.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Applied Digital will post -1.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Applied Digital

In related news, Director Richard N. Nottenburg sold 75,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $31.15, for a total transaction of $2,336,250.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 133,378 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,154,724.70. This represents a 35.99% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Company insiders own 9.50% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Applied Digital

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Equitec Proprietary Markets LLC purchased a new position in shares of Applied Digital in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $312,349,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Applied Digital by 36.4% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 24,168,082 shares of the company’s stock valued at $592,601,000 after acquiring an additional 6,445,908 shares in the last quarter. Value Aligned Research Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Applied Digital during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $138,380,000. Situational Awareness LP increased its position in shares of Applied Digital by 87.0% during the fourth quarter. Situational Awareness LP now owns 11,339,060 shares of the company’s stock valued at $278,034,000 after acquiring an additional 5,274,905 shares during the last quarter. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets lifted its holdings in Applied Digital by 24,356.8% during the second quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 5,219,565 shares of the company’s stock worth $52,561,000 after acquiring an additional 5,198,223 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other 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.