Applied Digital Co. (NASDAQ:APLD) Short Interest Update

Applied Digital Co. (NASDAQ:APLD) experienced a significant rise in short interest during November. As of November 15th, the total number of shares shorted reached 39,290,000, marking an increase of 45.4% from the previous month's total of 27,020,000 shares as recorded on October 31st. With an average daily trading volume of 16,990,000 shares, the current days-to-cover ratio stands at 2.3 days. This indicates that roughly 24.0% of the company’s shares have been sold short.

Wall Street Analyst Perspectives

A range of financial analysts have recently provided insights on APLD shares. Lake Street Capital increased their target price from $7.00 to $11.00, rating the stock as "buy" in a research note issued on October 10th. HC Wainwright also lifted their price target for Applied Digital from $5.00 to $10.00, maintaining a "buy" rating as of October 16th. Needham & Company reaffirmed their "buy" rating and set a target price of $11.00 in a report on November 1st. Additionally, B. Riley raised their target price for the shares from $8.00 to $9.00 while keeping a "buy" rating on September 13th. Lastly, on October 10th, Craig Hallum increased their price target from $10.00 to $12.00 and also rated the stock as a "buy." According to MarketBeat.com, six analysts currently rate the stock as a "buy," with an average price target of $10.50.

Recent Insider Transactions

In related news, CEO Wes Cummins sold 200,000 shares of Applied Digital stock on November 27th at an average price of $9.20, bringing in a total of $1,840,000. Following the sale, Cummins retains ownership of 3,875,955 shares valued at approximately $35.66 million. This sale represented a 4.91% decrease in his holdings. Director Richard N. Nottenburg also sold 50,000 shares on the same day for a total transaction of $460,000, reducing his ownership by 13.01% to approximately 334,317 shares valued at around $3.08 million. During the past 90 days, insiders have sold 369,369 shares valued at $3,170,161, with corporate insiders holding about 11.81% of the company's total stock.

Hedge Fund Activity

Hedge funds have recently adjusted their positions in Applied Digital. For instance, Vanguard Group Inc. increased their stake by 70.2% in the first quarter, owning 6,176,073 shares worth $26,434,000 after acquiring an additional 2,547,485 shares. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings by 48.7% in the third quarter, owning 3,061,160 shares valued at $25,258,000 after securing another 1,002,862 shares. Hood River Capital Management LLC grew its investment by 8.7% in the second quarter, now holding 9,596,231 shares worth $57,098,000 after purchasing 771,699 shares. Alight Capital Management LP initiated a new position in the second quarter worth about $3,570,000, while Van ECK Associates Corp increased its stake by 18.3% owning 2,869,980 shares valued at $17,077,000 after an acquisition of 443,699 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds now own 65.67% of Applied Digital's shares.

APLD Stock Performance

On a recent trading day, Applied Digital's stock climbed by 4.6%, reaching $10.10. The trading volume stood at 11,660,339 shares, exceeding the average volume of 7,954,302. For additional context, Applied Digital's 50-day moving average is $7.89, while the 200-day moving average is $5.95, and the company's market capitalization is approximately $2.18 billion. It has a P/E ratio of -8.88, and a beta of 4.65. The stock has experienced a one-year low of $2.36 and a high of $10.94, with liquidity ratios including a current ratio of 0.22 and a quick ratio of 0.22, along with a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62.

Applied Digital (NASDAQ:APLD) reported its quarterly earnings on October 9th, generating an EPS of ($0.15), outperforming expectations of ($0.28) by $0.13. The company reported a negative return on equity of 88.87% and a negative net margin of 74.95%. Revenue reached $60.70 million for the quarter, surpassing the forecasts of $54.85 million, and reflecting a 67.2% increase compared to the same period last year. Analysts predict that Applied Digital will post earnings per share of -0.4 for the current financial year.

Company Overview

Applied Digital Corporation is involved in the design, development, and operation of datacenters across North America. The company's datacenters support digital infrastructure solutions catering to the high-performance computing sector, and also provide services related to artificial intelligence cloud solutions, high-performance computing datacenter hosting, and crypto datacenter hosting.

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