Appian Co. (NASDAQ:APPN) Short Interest Up 40.7% in March

Appian Co. (NASDAQ:APPN) was the target of a significant growth in short interest during the month of March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 2,350,000 shares, a growth of 40.7% from the February 28th total of 1,670,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 502,400 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 4.7 days. Approximately 6.1% of the shares of the company are sold short.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently commented on APPN. Scotiabank began coverage on shares of Appian in a research report on Monday, January 6th. They issued a “sector perform” rating and a $37.00 price objective for the company. KeyCorp restated a “sector weight” rating on shares of Appian in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Finally, Barclays increased their price objective on Appian from $34.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Friday, December 6th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $37.80.

Insider Activity

In other Appian news, Director Albert G.W. Biddle III sold 990 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $33.21, for a total transaction of $32,877.90. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 29,348 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $974,647.08. This represents a 3.26 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 44.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Appian

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Point72 Hong Kong Ltd acquired a new stake in Appian during the fourth quarter worth approximately $35,000. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board lifted its stake in shares of Appian by 27.8% during the 4th quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 2,300 shares of the company’s stock worth $76,000 after purchasing an additional 500 shares during the period. Russell Investments Group Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of Appian by 1,244.8% during the fourth quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 3,779 shares of the company’s stock worth $125,000 after purchasing an additional 3,498 shares during the last quarter. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS purchased a new stake in shares of Appian in the fourth quarter valued at $181,000. Finally, FMR LLC increased its stake in Appian by 199.4% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 5,935 shares of the company’s stock valued at $203,000 after purchasing an additional 3,953 shares during the last quarter. 52.70% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Appian Price Performance

Shares of APPN opened at $28.38 on Monday. Appian has a 1-year low of $26.28 and a 1-year high of $43.33. The stock has a market cap of $2.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -22.37 and a beta of 1.65. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $32.57 and a 200-day simple moving average of $34.23.

Appian (NASDAQ:APPN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The company reported ($0.12) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.01) by ($0.11). The company had revenue of $166.70 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $164.31 million. Appian had a negative return on equity of 532.05% and a negative net margin of 14.95%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 14.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.06 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that Appian will post -0.28 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Appian Company Profile

Appian Corporation, a software company that provides low-code design platform in the United States, Mexico, Portugal, and internationally. The company's platform offers artificial intelligence, process automation, data fabric, and process mining. It provides The Appian Platform, an integrated automation platform that enables organizations to design, automate, and optimize mission-critical business processes.