AppLovin (NASDAQ:APP) Price Target Raised to $480.00

AppLovin (NASDAQ:APP) had its target price upped by Morgan Stanley from $460.00 to $480.00 in a research report report published on Thursday morning,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an overweight rating on the stock.

Several other equities research analysts have also commented on the company. Citigroup restated a “buy” rating on shares of AppLovin in a research note on Thursday, May 29th. Wedbush upgraded AppLovin to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 1st. Benchmark restated a “buy” rating and set a $525.00 price target on shares of AppLovin in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. HSBC set a $436.00 price target on AppLovin and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on AppLovin from $405.00 to $480.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, eighteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $472.33.

AppLovin Stock Performance

AppLovin stock opened at $455.98 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $154.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 64.77, a PEG ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 2.43. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $366.78 and a 200 day moving average price of $339.90. AppLovin has a 52 week low of $72.81 and a 52 week high of $525.15. The company has a current ratio of 2.74, a quick ratio of 1.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.01.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CTO Vasily Shikin sold 34,766 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $353.64, for a total value of $12,294,648.24. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief technology officer owned 70,889 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $25,069,185.96. This represents a 32.91% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Herald Y. Chen sold 400,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $374.61, for a total value of $149,844,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 221,209 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $82,867,103.49. This represents a 64.39% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 1,212,968 shares of company stock worth $455,062,980. Company insiders own 13.66% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of APP. Dynasty Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in AppLovin by 117,664.4% in the first quarter. Dynasty Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,702,694 shares of the company’s stock valued at $716,133,000 after purchasing an additional 2,700,399 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its holdings in AppLovin by 36.7% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 6,588,483 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,745,752,000 after purchasing an additional 1,769,400 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors purchased a new position in AppLovin in the fourth quarter valued at about $421,470,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in AppLovin by 7.3% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 17,830,675 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,724,594,000 after purchasing an additional 1,213,536 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Baillie Gifford & Co. boosted its holdings in AppLovin by 29.0% in the first quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. now owns 5,270,355 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,396,486,000 after purchasing an additional 1,185,859 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 41.85% of the company’s stock.

About AppLovin

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.