Latest news with #PolarisForge
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Applied Digital (APLD) Stock Trades Up, Here Is Why
What Happened? Shares of digital infrastructure provider Applied Digital (NASDAQ:APLD) jumped 15.6% in the afternoon session after the company announced plans for a new $3 billion AI data center campus and received a significant price target increase from analysts. The company announced it plans to break ground in September 2025 on Polaris Forge 2, a $3 billion, 280-megawatt AI data center campus in North Dakota. This new facility is designed to support the increasing demand for high-performance computing and is expected to begin initial operations in 2026, reaching full capacity by early 2027. This ambitious expansion underscores the company's aggressive push into the AI infrastructure space. Adding to the positive sentiment, Craig-Hallum raised its price target on Applied Digital to $23 from $12, maintaining a Buy rating. The firm noted that recent private transactions in the datacenter sector suggest the company's stock was undervalued. Other analysts also expressed bullish views, with Lake Street and Roth Capital raising their price targets to $18 and $24, respectively. Is now the time to buy Applied Digital? Access our full analysis report here, it's free. What Is The Market Telling Us Applied Digital's shares are extremely volatile and have had 101 moves greater than 5% over the last year. But moves this big are rare even for Applied Digital and indicate this news significantly impacted the market's perception of the business. The previous big move we wrote about was 6 days ago when the stock gained 5.9% on the news that a key inflation report met expectations, bolstering hopes for a Federal Reserve interest rate cut, while a separate report indicated rising optimism among small businesses. The July Consumer Price Index (CPI) report showed annual inflation holding steady at 2.7%, aligning with forecasts and increasing the probability of a Federal Reserve interest rate cut to over 94%. Lower interest rates can stimulate the economy by making it cheaper for businesses to borrow and invest. Further boosting confidence, the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) Small Business Optimism Index rose to a five-month high. This is a crucial indicator for the Business Services sector, as many of its companies cater to small and medium-sized enterprises. The combined positive data fueled a broad, "risk-on" sentiment, where investors favor economically sensitive sectors, leading to gains across IT services, staffing, and manufacturing. Applied Digital is up 107% since the beginning of the year, and at $16.19 per share, has set a new 52-week high. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of Applied Digital's shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $269,754. Here at StockStory, we certainly understand the potential of thematic investing. Diverse winners from Microsoft (MSFT) to Alphabet (GOOG), Coca-Cola (KO) to Monster Beverage (MNST) could all have been identified as promising growth stories with a megatrend driving the growth. So, in that spirit, we've identified a relatively under-the-radar profitable growth stock benefiting from the rise of AI, available to you FREE via this link. 擷取數據時發生錯誤 登入存取你的投資組合 擷取數據時發生錯誤 擷取數據時發生錯誤 擷取數據時發生錯誤 擷取數據時發生錯誤
Yahoo
30-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Applied Digital (NASDAQ:APLD) Reports Q2 In Line With Expectations
Digital infrastructure provider Applied Digital (NASDAQ:APLD) met Wall Street's revenue expectations in Q2 CY2025, but sales fell by 13% year on year to $38.01 million. Its non-GAAP loss of $0.03 per share was 81.5% above analysts' consensus estimates. Is now the time to buy Applied Digital? Find out in our full research report. Applied Digital (APLD) Q2 CY2025 Highlights: Revenue: $38.01 million vs analyst estimates of $37.94 million (13% year-on-year decline, in line) Adjusted EPS: -$0.03 vs analyst estimates of -$0.16 (beat) Adjusted EBITDA: $980,000 vs analyst estimates of $1.96 million (2.6% margin, relatively in line) Operating Margin: -54.5%, up from -85.5% in the same quarter last year Free Cash Flow was -$191.4 million compared to -$88.92 million in the same quarter last year Market Capitalization: $2.46 billion 'These long-term leases mark a defining moment for Polaris Forge 1, one of North America's most ambitious data center projects,' said Wes Cummins, Chairman and CEO of Applied Digital. Company Overview Pivoting from its origins in cryptocurrency mining to become a key player in the AI infrastructure boom, Applied Digital (NASDAQ:APLD) designs and operates specialized data centers that provide high-performance computing infrastructure for artificial intelligence and blockchain applications. Revenue Growth A company's long-term performance is an indicator of its overall quality. Even a bad business can shine for one or two quarters, but a top-tier one grows for years. With $215.5 million in revenue over the past 12 months, Applied Digital is a small player in the business services space, which sometimes brings disadvantages compared to larger competitors benefiting from economies of scale and numerous distribution channels. On the bright side, it can grow faster because it has more room to expand. As you can see below, Applied Digital's sales grew at an incredible 294% compounded annual growth rate over the last three years. This shows it had high demand, a useful starting point for our analysis. Long-term growth is the most important, but within business services, a stretched historical view may miss new innovations or demand cycles. Applied Digital's annualized revenue growth of 97.2% over the last two years is below its three-year trend, but we still think the results suggest healthy demand. This quarter, Applied Digital reported a rather uninspiring 13% year-on-year revenue decline to $38.01 million of revenue, in line with Wall Street's estimates. Looking ahead, sell-side analysts expect revenue to grow 24.4% over the next 12 months, a deceleration versus the last two years. Despite the slowdown, this projection is healthy and suggests the market is forecasting success for its products and services. Today's young investors likely haven't read the timeless lessons in Gorilla Game: Picking Winners In High Technology because it was written more than 20 years ago when Microsoft and Apple were first establishing their supremacy. But if we apply the same principles, then enterprise software stocks leveraging their own generative AI capabilities may well be the Gorillas of the future. So, in that spirit, we are excited to present our Special Free Report on a profitable, fast-growing enterprise software stock that is already riding the automation wave and looking to catch the generative AI next. Operating Margin Applied Digital's high expenses have contributed to an average operating margin of negative 48.6% over the last four years. Unprofitable business services companies require extra attention because they could get caught swimming naked when the tide goes out. It's hard to trust that the business can endure a full cycle. On the plus side, Applied Digital's operating margin rose over the last four years, as its sales growth gave it operating leverage. Still, it will take much more for the company to reach long-term profitability. Applied Digital's operating margin was negative 54.5% this quarter. Cash Is King Free cash flow isn't a prominently featured metric in company financials and earnings releases, but we think it's telling because it accounts for all operating and capital expenses, making it tough to manipulate. Cash is king. Applied Digital's demanding reinvestments have drained its resources over the last four years, putting it in a pinch and limiting its ability to return capital to investors. Its free cash flow margin averaged negative 236%, meaning it lit $235.63 of cash on fire for every $100 in revenue. Taking a step back, an encouraging sign is that Applied Digital's margin expanded during that time. In light of its glaring cash burn, however, this improvement is a bucket of hot water in a cold ocean. Applied Digital burned through $191.4 million of cash in Q2, equivalent to a negative 504% margin. The company's cash burn increased from $88.92 million of lost cash in the same quarter last year. Key Takeaways from Applied Digital's Q2 Results We were impressed by how significantly Applied Digital blew past analysts' EPS expectations this quarter despite in line revenue. Zooming out, we think this was a solid print. The stock traded up 5% to $10.52 immediately following the results. Applied Digital had an encouraging quarter, but one earnings result doesn't necessarily make the stock a buy. Let's see if this is a good investment. The latest quarter does matter, but not nearly as much as longer-term fundamentals and valuation, when deciding if the stock is a buy. We cover that in our actionable full research report which you can read here, it's free. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
17-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
$2.7 Billion in Data Center Savings: New Applied Digital Report Positions North Dakota as the Epicenter for AI Infrastructure
Polaris Forge 'AI Factory' model outlines how smart site selection and cooling design can cut costs by up to $60M per year per campus DALLAS, June 17, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Applied Digital Corporation (Nasdaq: APLD) ('Applied Digital' or the 'Company'), a designer, builder, and operator of next-generation digital infrastructure designed for High-Performance Computing (HPC) applications, announces the release of a new white paper, AI Factory: A Case Study for Total Cost of Ownership. The paper details how site selection and data center design decisions can dramatically reduce the long-term costs of generative AI infrastructure. 'AI factories represent a fundamentally new category of digital infrastructure,' said Wes Cummins, Chairman and CEO of Applied Digital. 'Their success hinges on making the right decisions up front, especially around power and cooling. This white paper helps lay out what those decisions look like and why regions like North Dakota can outperform conventional markets on both cost and sustainability.' Applied Digital also introduced Polaris Forge as the name for its North Dakota-based data center region. With four campuses in various stages of development, Polaris Forge is built for scale, optimized for AI workloads, driven by renewable power and supported by infrastructure that prioritizes total cost of ownership. Key findings from the white paper include: AI factories require 15-30 times the power density of traditional data centers, driving the need for new power and cooling strategies. Site selection directly impacts cost; choosing areas with stranded power and cooler climates can reduce annual electricity costs by $50 to $60 million per year compared to other existing 100MW data centers, or up to $2.7 billion over a 30-year lifespan. Liquid cooling and free cooling are essential to long-term efficiency, enabling significantly lower Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) and Water Usage Effectiveness (WUE). North Dakota offers more than 220 days of free cooling annually, which contributes to lower operational costs and improved sustainability. Polaris Forge 01's design, featuring a closed-loop, waterless, direct-to-chip cooling system and access to gigawatt-scale stranded power demonstrates how infrastructure purpose-built for AI can achieve a projected PUE of 1.18 and a WUE near zero. The company's existing Ellendale campus—now designated Polaris Forge 01—demonstrates how a purpose-built AI factory can outperform traditional markets. Applied Digital designed Polaris Forge 1 with speed and efficiency in mind, selecting a location that offers access to abundant stranded power, a favorable climate for free cooling, and a strong foundation for long-term capacity expansion. Built to support 400 MW of critical IT load, with over 1 gigawatt in load study, Polaris Forge 01 positions both the region and Applied Digital as leaders in AI infrastructure. In addition to its infrastructure development, Applied Digital continues to play a key role in supporting local economies and workforces through its Community and Economic Development Initiatives. The company's approach to integrating community priorities, such as workforce housing and job creation, into its data center expansion strategy has helped it scale responsibly while maintaining strong local support. 'With Polaris Forge, we're building something that's efficient, scalable and community-focused,' added Cummins. 'We believe AI infrastructure can thrive in places like North Dakota—not in spite of their location, but because of it.' Applied Digital recently signed a 250MW 15-year lease agreement, worth $7 billion over its term, with CoreWeave for deployment at Polaris Forge 01, demonstrating strong market confidence in the company's ability to deliver large-scale, AI-optimized infrastructure with speed and reliability in emerging high-performance computing regions. To learn more about how site selection and design can impact long-term AI infrastructure costs, and why Applied Digital is betting big on regions like North Dakota, download the full white paper. About Applied Digital Applied Digital (Nasdaq: APLD) develops, builds and operates next-generation data centers and cloud infrastructure. Different by design, the company's purpose-built facilities are engineered to unleash the power of accelerated compute and deliver secure, scalable and sustainable digital hosting, along with turnkey CSaaS and GPU-as-a-Service solutions. Backed by deep hyperscale expertise and a robust pipeline of available power, Applied Digital accommodates AI Factories and beyond to support the world's most exacting AI/ML, blockchain and high-performance computing (HPC) workloads. CAUTION ABOUT FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS This press release contains 'forward-looking statements' as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 regarding, among other things, future operating and financial performance, product development, market position, business strategy and objectives and future financing plans. These statements use words, and variations of words, such as 'will,' 'continue,' 'build,' 'future,' 'increase,' 'drive,' 'believe,' 'look,' 'ahead,' 'confident,' 'deliver,' 'outlook,' 'expect,' 'project' and 'predict.' Other examples of forward-looking statements may include, but are not limited to, (i) statements that reflect perspectives and expectations regarding the data center campus development, (ii) statements about the high-performance computing (HPC) industry, (iii) statements of plans and objectives, including an evolving business model, or estimates or predictions of actions by suppliers, (iv) statements of future economic performance, and (v) statements of assumptions underlying other statements and statements about the Company or its business. You are cautioned not to rely on these forward-looking statements. These statements are based on current expectations of future events and thus are inherently subject to uncertainty. If underlying assumptions prove inaccurate or known or unknown risks or uncertainties materialize, actual results could vary materially from our expectations and projections. These risks, uncertainties, and other factors include: our ability to complete construction of the Ellendale HPC data centers; changes to AI and HPC infrastructure needs and their impact on future plans; risks associated with the leasing business, including those associated with counterparties; costs related to the HPC operations and strategy; our ability to raise additional capital to fund ongoing and future data center construction and operations; our ability to obtain financing of the lease agreements on acceptable financing terms, or at all; the inability to comply with regulations, developments and changes in regulations; cash flow and access to capital; availability of financing to continue to grow our business; decline in demand for our products and services; maintenance of third party relationships; and conditions in the debt and equity capital markets. A further list and description of these risks, uncertainties and other factors can be found in the Company's most recently filed Annual Report on Form 10-K and Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, including in the sections captioned 'Forward-Looking Statements' and 'Risk Factors,' and in the Company's subsequent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Copies of these filings are available online at on the Company's website ( under 'Investors,' or on request from the Company. Information in this release is as of the dates and time periods indicated herein, and the Company does not undertake to update any of the information contained in these materials, except as required by law. CONTACT: Media Contact: Jaymie Scotto & Associates jsa_applied@ in to access your portfolio
