Piper Sandler Initiates Coverage on AppLovin (NASDAQ:APP)

Piper Sandler assumed coverage on shares of AppLovin (NASDAQ:APP - Free Report) in a research note released on Wednesday, Marketbeat Ratings reports. The brokerage issued an overweight rating and a $400.00 target price on the stock.

Other equities analysts also recently issued research reports about the stock. Jefferies Financial Group raised their target price on shares of AppLovin from $105.00 to $108.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. Oppenheimer raised their price objective on shares of AppLovin from $180.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of AppLovin from $185.00 to $335.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Monday. UBS Group raised AppLovin from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and raised their price target for the stock from $100.00 to $145.00 in a report on Tuesday, September 17th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group cut AppLovin from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and lifted their price target for the company from $103.00 to $150.00 in a report on Monday, October 14th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $222.96.

AppLovin Stock Performance

NASDAQ APP traded up $4.03 on Wednesday, reaching $325.22. The stock had a trading volume of 7,081,611 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,423,934. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.70, a quick ratio of 2.41 and a current ratio of 2.41. The stock has a market cap of $109.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 98.79, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.58 and a beta of 1.86. The business's 50-day moving average price is $168.07 and its 200 day moving average price is $112.43. AppLovin has a 12-month low of $35.79 and a 12-month high of $342.51.

AppLovin (NASDAQ:APP - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The company reported $1.25 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.92 by $0.33. AppLovin had a return on equity of 122.24% and a net margin of 26.85%. The company had revenue of $1.20 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.13 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.30 EPS. The company's revenue was up 38.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts expect that AppLovin will post 4.06 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CTO Vasily Shikin sold 154,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $84.14, for a total value of $12,999,630.00. Following the sale, the chief technology officer now directly owns 4,530,455 shares in the company, valued at $381,192,483.70. The trade was a 3.30 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Victoria Valenzuela sold 14,166 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $89.98, for a total transaction of $1,274,656.68. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 352,616 shares of the company's stock, valued at $31,728,387.68. The trade was a 3.86 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 235,542 shares of company stock worth $32,012,275 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 14.69% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of AppLovin

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. WCM Investment Management LLC grew its position in shares of AppLovin by 10.5% in the third quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC now owns 10,820,409 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,382,307,000 after purchasing an additional 1,029,009 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in shares of AppLovin by 622.8% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 7,893,237 shares of the company's stock worth $1,030,462,000 after buying an additional 6,801,138 shares in the last quarter. Lone Pine Capital LLC boosted its position in shares of AppLovin by 7.2% in the second quarter. Lone Pine Capital LLC now owns 5,702,438 shares of the company's stock valued at $474,557,000 after acquiring an additional 382,767 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its stake in shares of AppLovin by 8.6% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 5,388,023 shares of the company's stock valued at $703,406,000 after acquiring an additional 428,419 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in AppLovin by 12.8% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,946,135 shares of the company's stock worth $514,418,000 after purchasing an additional 449,241 shares in the last quarter. 41.85% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.