Appian Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NASDAQ:APPN)

Appian Co. (NASDAQ:APPN) was the recipient of some unusual options trading on Wednesday. Stock investors acquired 3,630 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of 232% compared to the average daily volume of 1,092 call options.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

APPN has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on shares of Appian from $35.00 to $27.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. Scotiabank decreased their price target on shares of Appian from $37.00 to $34.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. DA Davidson lowered their target price on shares of Appian from $40.00 to $28.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 14th. Citigroup dropped their target price on shares of Appian from $53.00 to $40.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of Appian from $37.00 to $28.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Appian currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $34.14.

Insider Activity

In other Appian news, major shareholder Abdiel Capital Advisors, Lp sold 5,103 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $27.02, for a total transaction of $137,883.06. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 9,755,116 shares in the company, valued at $263,583,234.32. The trade was a 0.05 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Albert G.W. Biddle III sold 990 shares of the 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 transaction, the director now owns 29,348 shares in the company, valued at $974,647.08. The trade was a 3.26 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 240,510 shares of company stock worth $6,648,635 over the last three months. 44.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Appian

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Barclays PLC increased its stake in Appian by 285.9% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 71,771 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,451,000 after buying an additional 53,172 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Appian by 0.6% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 957,493 shares of the company’s stock valued at $32,695,000 after buying an additional 5,772 shares during the period. Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC increased its stake in Appian by 18.3% during the fourth quarter. Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC now owns 31,127 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,081,000 after acquiring an additional 4,813 shares during the last quarter. Entropy Technologies LP acquired a new position in Appian in the fourth quarter valued at about $208,000. Finally, Handelsbanken Fonder AB boosted its position in shares of Appian by 14.7% during the 4th quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 8,600 shares of the company’s stock worth $284,000 after purchasing an additional 1,100 shares during the period. 52.70% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Appian Stock Up 3.8 %

Appian stock opened at $30.69 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $29.84 and a 200 day moving average price of $33.35. The company has a market capitalization of $2.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -24.36 and a beta of 1.78. Appian has a 52 week low of $24.00 and a 52 week high of $43.33.

Appian (NASDAQ:APPN) last posted its 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). Appian had a negative net margin of 14.95% and a negative return on equity of 532.05%. The firm had revenue of $166.70 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $164.31 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.06 earnings per share. Appian’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate that Appian will post -0.28 EPS 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.