Short Interest in Appian Co. (NASDAQ:APPN) Grows By 16.3%

Appian Co. (NASDAQ:APPN) was the recipient of a significant increase in short interest in the month of August. As of August 31st, there was short interest totalling 3,490,000 shares, an increase of 16.3% from the August 15th total of 3,000,000 shares. Approximately 9.0% of the company’s shares are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 681,200 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 5.1 days.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on APPN. KeyCorp cut shares of Appian from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. William Blair lowered Appian from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. DA Davidson downgraded Appian from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their target price on Appian from $47.00 to $41.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Finally, Barclays reduced their price target on Appian from $32.00 to $29.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, August 5th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $39.20.

Appian Stock Performance

Shares of Appian stock traded up $0.56 during trading on Monday, hitting $33.43. 82,613 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 560,820. The stock has a market cap of $2.42 billion, a PE ratio of -22.36 and a beta of 1.56. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $32.21 and its 200 day moving average is $33.10. Appian has a 12 month low of $26.28 and a 12 month high of $47.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.68, a quick ratio of 1.24 and a current ratio of 1.24.

Appian (NASDAQ:APPN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The company reported ($0.26) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.31) by $0.05. The business had revenue of $146.50 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $142.87 million. Appian had a negative return on equity of 532.05% and a negative net margin of 18.80%. The business’s revenue was up 14.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted ($0.55) earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Appian will post -1.07 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Appian

In other news, major shareholder Abdiel Capital Advisors, Lp acquired 60,722 shares of Appian stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 8th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $31.34 per share, with a total value of $1,903,027.48. Following the purchase, the insider now directly owns 6,426,026 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $201,391,654.84. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Over the last 90 days, insiders bought 2,366,348 shares of company stock valued at $75,988,287. Company insiders own 44.00% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Appian

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Neo Ivy Capital Management acquired a new stake in shares of Appian in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $65,000. Concord Wealth Partners acquired a new stake in Appian in the first quarter worth approximately $85,000. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board bought a new position in Appian during the 2nd quarter valued at $96,000. nVerses Capital LLC bought a new position in Appian during the 2nd quarter valued at $105,000. Finally, Point72 Hong Kong Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Appian during the 2nd quarter valued at $121,000. Institutional investors own 52.70% of the company’s stock.

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.