Morgan Stanley Lowers Appian (NASDAQ:APPN) Price Target to $27.00

Appian (NASDAQ:APPN) had its price target lowered by equities researchers at Morgan Stanley from $35.00 to $27.00 in a report issued on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an “equal weight” rating on the stock. Morgan Stanley’s price objective indicates a potential upside of 1.66% from the company’s current price.

A number of other equities analysts have also weighed in on APPN. KeyCorp reiterated a “sector weight” rating on shares of Appian in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Scotiabank began coverage on shares of Appian in a report on Monday, January 6th. They issued a “sector perform” rating and a $37.00 target price for the company. Finally, DA Davidson cut their price target on shares of Appian from $40.00 to $28.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $35.17.

Appian Price Performance

APPN stock opened at $26.56 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $1.97 billion, a PE ratio of -21.08 and a beta of 1.78. Appian has a 12 month low of $24.00 and a 12 month high of $43.33. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $30.34 and a 200 day simple moving average of $33.54.

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Appian

In other Appian news, Director Albert G.W. Biddle III sold 990 shares of Appian stock in a transaction on Monday, February 24th. The shares were 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 owns 29,348 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $974,647.08. This trade represents a 3.26 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder Abdiel Capital Advisors, Lp sold 78,528 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.49, for a total transaction of $2,080,206.72. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 9,942,140 shares in the company, valued at $263,367,288.60. This trade represents a 0.78 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 240,510 shares of company stock valued at $6,648,635 in the last 90 days. 44.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Appian

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. FMR LLC raised its holdings in shares of Appian by 199.4% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 5,935 shares of the company’s stock valued at $203,000 after purchasing an additional 3,953 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC raised its holdings in Appian by 285.9% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 71,771 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,451,000 after buying an additional 53,172 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Appian by 0.6% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 957,493 shares of the company’s stock worth $32,695,000 after buying an additional 5,772 shares during the last quarter. Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of Appian by 18.3% during the 4th 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Entropy Technologies LP bought a new stake in shares of Appian during the 4th quarter worth about $208,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 52.70% of the company’s stock.

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.