AppLovin (NASDAQ:APP) Trading Up 11.3% After Analyst Upgrade

Key Points

• AppLovin's stock price surged by 11.3% after Jefferies Financial Group upgraded their price target from $560.00 to $615.00, maintaining a buy rating on the stock.
• The company's recent earnings report showed EPS of $2.26, exceeding the consensus estimate of $2.05, although revenue fell short of expectations at $1.26 billion.
• A significant amount of insider activity has occurred, with CTO Vasily Shikin selling 30,000 shares and insider Victoria Valenzuela selling 35,000 shares recently.

Shares of AppLovin Corporation (NASDAQ:APP - Get Free Report) shot up 11.3% during mid-day trading on Monday after Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on the stock from $560.00 to $615.00. Jefferies Financial Group currently has a buy rating on the stock. AppLovin traded as high as $555.50 and last traded at $545.51. 9,198,185 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 31% from the average session volume of 7,012,177 shares. The stock had previously closed at $490.24.

Several other brokerages have also recently weighed in on APP. BTIG Research boosted their target price on AppLovin from $480.00 to $483.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, July 23rd. Oppenheimer restated an "outperform" rating and set a $500.00 target price (down from $560.00) on shares of AppLovin in a report on Thursday, May 8th. Wedbush restated an "outperform" rating and set a $620.00 target price on shares of AppLovin in a report on Thursday, August 7th. Scotiabank restated an "outperform" rating on shares of AppLovin in a report on Thursday, August 28th. Finally, Benchmark restated a "buy" rating and set a $525.00 target price on shares of AppLovin in a report on Thursday, May 8th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have assigned a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, AppLovin presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $482.86.

Insider Activity

In other AppLovin news, CTO Vasily Shikin sold 30,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $437.57, for a total value of $13,127,100.00. Following the sale, the chief technology officer owned 3,360,104 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,470,280,707.28. The trade was a 0.88% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider Victoria Valenzuela sold 35,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $502.23, for a total value of $17,578,050.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 269,955 shares in the company, valued at approximately $135,579,499.65. The trade was a 11.48% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 1,158,288 shares of company stock worth $515,437,023 in the last 90 days. 13.66% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of AppLovin

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of APP. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of AppLovin during the fourth quarter worth $294,000. Bison Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in shares of AppLovin during the fourth quarter worth $239,000. Driehaus Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of AppLovin during the fourth quarter worth $502,000. Deutsche Bank AG increased its position in shares of AppLovin by 64.4% during the fourth quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 455,496 shares of the company's stock worth $147,503,000 after acquiring an additional 178,450 shares during the period. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of AppLovin during the fourth quarter worth $470,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 41.85% of the company's stock.

AppLovin Trading Up 11.4%

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.01, a current ratio of 2.74 and a quick ratio of 2.74. The business's 50 day moving average is $402.06 and its 200 day moving average is $347.07. The stock has a market cap of $184.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 77.49, a P/E/G ratio of 2.74 and a beta of 2.44.

AppLovin (NASDAQ:APP - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, August 6th. The company reported $2.26 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.05 by $0.21. The firm had revenue of $1.26 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.37 billion. AppLovin had a net margin of 45.72% and a return on equity of 252.67%. The company's revenue was up 77.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.89 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that AppLovin Corporation will post 6.87 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AppLovin Company Profile

AppLovin Corporation engages in building a software-based platform for advertisers to enhance the marketing and monetization of their content in the United States and internationally. It operates through two segments, Software Platform and Apps. The company's software solutions include AppDiscovery, a marketing software solution, which matches advertiser demand with publisher supply through auctions; MAX, an in-app bidding software that optimizes the value of a publisher's advertising inventory by running a real-time competitive auction; Adjust, a measurement and analytics marketing platform that provides marketers with the visibility, insights, and tools needed to grow their apps from early stage to maturity; and Wurl, a connected TV platform, which distributes streaming video for content companies and provides advertising and publishing solutions through its AdPool, ContentDiscovery, and Global FAST Pass products.

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