AppLovin (NASDAQ:APP) Raised to Strong-Buy at Argus

AppLovin (NASDAQ:APP) was upgraded by Argus to a “strong-buy” rating in a report released on Monday,Zacks.com reports.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group cut their price objective on shares of AppLovin from $860.00 to $700.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 12th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and set a $700.00 price objective on shares of AppLovin in a research report on Wednesday, March 11th. Benchmark restated a “buy” rating on shares of AppLovin in a research report on Friday, March 6th. UBS Group set a $740.00 price objective on shares of AppLovin in a research report on Thursday, February 12th. Finally, Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and set a $650.00 price objective (down from $800.00) on shares of AppLovin in a research report on Thursday, February 12th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have issued a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, AppLovin currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $661.95.

AppLovin Stock Performance

NASDAQ:APP opened at $433.29 on Monday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $424.67 and its 200-day moving average price is $550.60. The company has a current ratio of 3.32, a quick ratio of 3.32 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.65. The company has a market cap of $146.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 44.44, a P/E/G ratio of 0.72 and a beta of 2.50. AppLovin has a twelve month low of $222.02 and a twelve month high of $745.61.

AppLovin (NASDAQ:APP) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 11th. The company reported $3.24 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.89 by $0.35. AppLovin had a net margin of 57.42% and a return on equity of 245.64%. The firm had revenue of $1.66 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.61 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.73 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 66.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that AppLovin will post 6.87 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at AppLovin

In other AppLovin news, Director Eduardo Vivas sold 163,910 shares of AppLovin stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $453.49, for a total transaction of $74,331,545.90. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 6,969,382 shares in the company, valued at $3,160,545,043.18. This trade represents a 2.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CTO Vasily Shikin sold 5,231 shares of AppLovin stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $477.47, for a total transaction of $2,497,645.57. Following the sale, the chief technology officer owned 30,658 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,638,275.26. This represents a 14.58% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 365,244 shares of company stock worth $169,584,607 over the last three months. Insiders own 13.66% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On AppLovin

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in APP. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of AppLovin during the fourth quarter valued at about $294,000. Bison Wealth LLC purchased a new position in shares of AppLovin in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $239,000. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC boosted its stake in shares of AppLovin by 58.0% in the first quarter. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC now owns 1,692 shares of the company’s stock valued at $448,000 after purchasing an additional 621 shares during the period. NewEdge Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of AppLovin by 5.7% in the second quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 14,523 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,084,000 after purchasing an additional 782 shares during the period. Finally, Treasurer of the State of North Carolina boosted its stake in shares of AppLovin by 7.2% in the second quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina now owns 139,189 shares of the company’s stock valued at $48,727,000 after purchasing an additional 9,380 shares during the period. 41.85% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

AppLovin Company Profile

AppLovin Corporation is a Palo Alto–based mobile technology company that provides software and services to help app developers grow and monetize their businesses. The company operates a data-driven advertising and marketing platform that connects app publishers and advertisers, delivering tools for user acquisition, monetization, analytics and creative optimization. AppLovin’s technology is integrated into a broad set of mobile applications through software development kits (SDKs) and ad products designed to maximize revenue and engagement for developers.

Key components of AppLovin’s offering include an ad mediation and exchange platform that enables publishers to manage and monetize inventory across multiple demand sources, and a user-acquisition platform that helps advertisers target and scale campaigns.