Shares of Applied Digital Corp (NASDAQ:APLD) are 31.9% higher to trade at $38.62 this morning, after the cloud infrastructure company posted a fiscal first-quarter revenue beat and a quarterly loss of 3 cents per share, narrower than analyst expectations of -13 cents per share. AI-driven leasing activities -- including a massive 150-megawatt AI data center expansion -- were the catalyst behind the upbeat report.
In response, Needham hiked its price target on the security to $41 from $21 and maintained its "buy" rating, while Northland Capital hiked its target to $40 from $30. But with an average 12-month price target of $36.11 a 3.6% deficit to current levels, there is plenty of room for more price-target hikes in the coming weeks.
APLD has more than quadrupled in value in 2025 alone, this morning tapping a 21-year high of $39.96 out of the gate, and now on track for its best daily pop since June 2. The breakout has the shares' 14-day Relative Strength Index (RSI) all the way up in "overbought" territory at 87. In the event of a breather though, there's the ascending 50-day moving average that aided the stock's summer surge, capturing several pullbacks between May and September.
Short interest has been surging of late, up 21.4% during the past two reporting periods. This accounts for a whopping 30.6% of the stock's total available float.
Options traders are buzzing today, with 202,000 calls exchanged already today, volume that's six times the average intraday amount. Most of this attention is at the weekly 10/10 40-strike call, while that 40-strike is also popular in the standard October series.
