Barclays Cuts Appian (NASDAQ:APPN) Price Target to $21.00

Appian (NASDAQ:APPN) had its target price reduced by Barclays from $34.00 to $21.00 in a report issued on Friday morning,Benzinga reports. Barclays currently has an underweight rating on the stock.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. Zacks Research cut Appian from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, January 9th. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Appian in a research note on Monday, December 29th. TD Cowen reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Appian in a research report on Thursday, November 6th. Wall Street Zen downgraded Appian from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 23rd. Finally, DA Davidson set a $25.00 target price on shares of Appian in a report on Friday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Appian has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $30.00.

Appian Stock Performance

NASDAQ:APPN opened at $25.14 on Friday. Appian has a 52-week low of $21.77 and a 52-week high of $46.06. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $30.55 and a 200 day simple moving average of $32.43. The company has a market cap of $1.86 billion, a PE ratio of 2,514.00 and a beta of 0.90.

Appian (NASDAQ:APPN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 19th. The company reported $0.15 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.11 by $0.04. Appian had a net margin of 0.17% and a negative return on equity of 11.83%. The company had revenue of $202.87 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $189.33 million. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 21.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Appian has set its FY 2026 guidance at 0.820-0.960 EPS and its Q1 2026 guidance at 0.160-0.200 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Appian will post -0.28 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Appian

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Invesco Ltd. raised its position in shares of Appian by 13.2% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 47,737 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,691,000 after purchasing an additional 5,560 shares during the period. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV grew its stake in Appian by 26.7% in the 4th quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 15,191 shares of the company’s stock valued at $538,000 after buying an additional 3,198 shares during the last quarter. XTX Topco Ltd grew its stake in Appian by 75.2% in the 4th quarter. XTX Topco Ltd now owns 20,453 shares of the company’s stock valued at $724,000 after buying an additional 8,782 shares during the last quarter. Zacks Investment Management raised its holdings in Appian by 176.6% in the 4th quarter. Zacks Investment Management now owns 32,363 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,146,000 after acquiring an additional 20,663 shares during the period. Finally, Tudor Investment Corp ET AL lifted its position in Appian by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Tudor Investment Corp ET AL now owns 372,810 shares of the company’s stock worth $13,205,000 after acquiring an additional 2,939 shares during the last quarter. 52.70% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Key Stories Impacting Appian

Here are the key news stories impacting Appian this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Q4 beat and revenue growth — Appian reported $0.15 EPS vs. consensus ~$0.11 and revenue of $202.9M (≈22% YoY growth), beating estimates. This is the main driver of the rally. Appian Q4 Earnings Surpass Estimates
• Positive Sentiment: Raised guidance — Appian issued Q1 FY2026 EPS guidance of $0.160–0.200 (well above street) and FY2026 EPS of $0.820–0.960, plus higher revenue ranges, which materially improved forward expectations. Press Release / Guidance
• Positive Sentiment: Profitability and buyback — Coverage notes Appian has turned profitable and announced a $50M buyback, supporting EPS trajectory and signaling management confidence. Investors Reacting To Appian Turning Profitable
• Positive Sentiment: Operational highlights — Cloud subscription revenue grew ~18–19% YoY (Q4 and FY cloud subs), and management cited AI-driven upsell momentum and public sector gains in the outlook. Earnings Presentation
• Neutral Sentiment: Supporting materials — Multiple transcripts and deep-dive write-ups (earnings call, slide deck) are available for due diligence; these provide detail but are informational rather than market-moving by themselves. Earnings Call Transcript
• Neutral Sentiment: Short-interest data appears anomalous — Recent short-interest reports show “0” shares (likely a reporting glitch); no clear signal of a meaningful short squeeze or covering pressure. MarketBeat
• Neutral Sentiment: Volume and momentum — Trading volume has picked up versus the stock’s average, consistent with earnings-driven moves; monitor whether volume sustains. Seeking Alpha: Stock Reaction
• Negative Sentiment: Analyst downgrades/target cuts — TD Cowen lowered its target to $30 (hold) and Barclays cut to $21 (underweight); these trims indicate some analysts are taking a more cautious view despite the beat. Benzinga (TD Cowen) Benzinga (Barclays)

Appian Company Profile

Appian Corporation is a global technology company specializing in low-code automation platforms designed to streamline business processes. Founded in 1999 by Matt Calkins, the company provides an integrated suite of tools that enables organizations to build enterprise applications and workflows rapidly with minimal hand coding. The platform combines process management, robotic process automation (RPA), artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities and data integration into a single environment, allowing businesses to accelerate digital transformation initiatives.

The core offering, the Appian Low-Code Platform, empowers users—ranging from professional developers to business analysts—to visually model, design and deploy applications that can automate complex operations, orchestrate tasks across systems, and deliver real-time analytics.