AppLovin Corporation $APP Shares Acquired by Next Century Growth Investors LLC

Key Points

• Next Century Growth Investors LLC increased its holdings in AppLovin Corporation by 48.5%, acquiring an additional 4,162 shares, bringing its total to 12,735 shares valued at $3.37 million.
• Numerous hedge funds, including Beck Bode LLC and Ieq Capital LLC, also expanded their positions in AppLovin during the first quarter, indicating strong institutional interest in the company.
• Analyst price targets for AppLovin have been mixed, with Oppenheimer downgrading its target to $500.00 while Wells Fargo raised its target to $491.00, reflecting a range of sentiment about the stock's performance.

Next Century Growth Investors LLC raised its holdings in shares of AppLovin Corporation (NASDAQ:APP - Free Report) by 48.5% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 12,735 shares of the company's stock after acquiring an additional 4,162 shares during the quarter. Next Century Growth Investors LLC's holdings in AppLovin were worth $3,374,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in APP. Beck Bode LLC lifted its holdings in shares of AppLovin by 3.7% in the 1st quarter. Beck Bode LLC now owns 19,495 shares of the company's stock valued at $5,166,000 after purchasing an additional 701 shares during the last quarter. B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. AG lifted its holdings in shares of AppLovin by 20.6% in the 1st quarter. B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. AG now owns 6,399 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,696,000 after purchasing an additional 1,092 shares during the last quarter. Silvant Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of AppLovin by 27.4% in the 1st quarter. Silvant Capital Management LLC now owns 38,696 shares of the company's stock valued at $10,253,000 after purchasing an additional 8,328 shares during the last quarter. Ieq Capital LLC lifted its holdings in shares of AppLovin by 139.2% in the 1st quarter. Ieq Capital LLC now owns 94,633 shares of the company's stock valued at $25,075,000 after purchasing an additional 55,071 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Rafferty Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of AppLovin by 7.3% in the 1st quarter. Rafferty Asset Management LLC now owns 40,437 shares of the company's stock valued at $10,715,000 after purchasing an additional 2,748 shares during the last quarter. 41.85% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

APP has been the subject of several research reports. Oppenheimer reissued an "outperform" rating and issued a $500.00 target price (down from $560.00) on shares of AppLovin in a report on Thursday, May 8th. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their target price on AppLovin from $460.00 to $530.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, May 8th. Wedbush reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and set a $620.00 price objective on shares of AppLovin in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on AppLovin from $480.00 to $491.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, August 21st. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded AppLovin from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Saturday, August 9th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have issued a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, AppLovin currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $478.81.

AppLovin Stock Performance

Shares of APP stock traded down $5.16 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $478.59. 5,135,135 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 6,516,874. The company has a market cap of $161.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 67.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.70 and a beta of 2.43. The company's 50 day moving average is $387.40 and its two-hundred day moving average is $348.32. AppLovin Corporation has a 1 year low of $82.51 and a 1 year high of $525.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.01, a current ratio of 2.74 and a quick ratio of 2.74.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CTO Vasily Shikin sold 30,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $437.57, for a total transaction of $13,127,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief technology officer directly owned 3,360,104 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,470,280,707.28. This represents a 0.88% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Arash Adam Foroughi sold 90,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $421.04, for a total value of $37,893,600.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,620,054 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,103,147,536.16. This trade represents a 3.32% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 1,236,152 shares of company stock valued at $545,240,378. Corporate insiders own 13.66% of the company's stock.

AppLovin 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.