Appian Co. (NASDAQ:APPN) Short Interest Up 8.4% in March

Appian Co. (NASDAQ:APPN) saw a large growth in short interest in March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 2,200,000 shares, a growth of 8.4% from the March 15th total of 2,030,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 480,300 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 4.6 days.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on APPN shares. KeyCorp raised their price target on shares of Appian from $45.00 to $50.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 16th. DA Davidson dropped their price target on shares of Appian from $55.00 to $52.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 4th. William Blair reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Appian in a research note on Wednesday, March 20th. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Appian from $35.00 to $36.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Monday. Finally, Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Appian from $48.00 to $52.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $48.86.

Insider Transactions at Appian

In other news, major shareholder Abdiel Capital Advisors, Lp sold 400,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $32.44, for a total transaction of $12,976,000.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 5,890,304 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $191,081,461.76. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders own 43.60% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC grew its position in Appian by 14.1% in the first quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 23,285 shares of the company’s stock worth $930,000 after acquiring an additional 2,881 shares in the last quarter. Quadrature Capital Ltd purchased a new position in Appian in the fourth quarter worth $210,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Appian by 2.9% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,689,370 shares of the company’s stock worth $176,602,000 after acquiring an additional 132,827 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC grew its position in Appian by 411.0% in the fourth quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 65,824 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,478,000 after acquiring an additional 52,942 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Voloridge Investment Management LLC grew its position in Appian by 77.8% in the fourth quarter. Voloridge Investment Management LLC now owns 148,701 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,600,000 after acquiring an additional 65,075 shares in the last quarter. 52.70% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Appian Stock Performance

Appian stock traded down $0.48 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $37.99. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 954,928 shares, compared to its average volume of 492,121. Appian has a 12-month low of $30.87 and a 12-month high of $54.26. The company has a market capitalization of $2.79 billion, a P/E ratio of -24.83 and a beta of 1.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.68, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.12. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $36.23 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $37.12.

Appian (NASDAQ:APPN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 15th. The company reported ($0.07) EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.40) by $0.33. Appian had a negative net margin of 20.43% and a negative return on equity of 127.40%. The firm had revenue of $145.32 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $140.41 million. Sell-side analysts predict that Appian will post -0.98 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About Appian

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.