AppLovin (NASDAQ:APP) Shares Up 2.5% – Here’s What Happened

AppLovin Co. (NASDAQ:APP)’s stock price shot up 2.5% on Wednesday . The stock traded as high as $292.43 and last traded at $264.14. 5,294,605 shares were traded during mid-day trading, an increase of 4% from the average session volume of 5,114,096 shares. The stock had previously closed at $257.76.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently weighed in on APP. Bank of America raised their price target on shares of AppLovin from $375.00 to $580.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Piper Sandler raised their price target on shares of AppLovin from $400.00 to $575.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on shares of AppLovin from $400.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Wells Fargo & Company set a $538.00 price target on shares of AppLovin and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on shares of AppLovin from $220.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, January 27th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, AppLovin has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $438.28.

AppLovin Stock Up 6.8 %

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 firm has a market capitalization of $98.76 billion, a PE ratio of 63.66, a P/E/G ratio of 3.02 and a beta of 2.33. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $358.15 and its 200-day moving average price is $265.29.

AppLovin (NASDAQ:APP) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The company reported $1.73 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.12 by $0.61. AppLovin had a net margin of 33.54% and a return on equity of 188.55%. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that AppLovin Co. will post 6.87 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at AppLovin

In other AppLovin news, insider Victoria Valenzuela sold 15,971 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $313.07, for a total value of $5,000,040.97. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 372,205 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $116,526,219.35. This represents a 4.11 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CTO Vasily Shikin sold 17,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, March 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $241.65, for a total transaction of $4,228,875.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief technology officer now directly owns 88,389 shares in the company, valued at $21,359,201.85. This trade represents a 16.53 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 322,871 shares of company stock valued at $111,401,882. Insiders own 14.69% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. FMR LLC grew its position in shares of AppLovin by 75.5% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 13,851,122 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,485,409,000 after buying an additional 5,957,885 shares during the last quarter. SVB Wealth LLC purchased a new position in shares of AppLovin in the 4th quarter valued at $1,781,922,000. State Street Corp grew its position in shares of AppLovin by 8.6% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 5,388,023 shares of the company’s stock valued at $703,406,000 after buying an additional 428,419 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in AppLovin by 14.5% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,519,445 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,462,144,000 after purchasing an additional 573,310 shares during the period. Finally, Baillie Gifford & Co. boosted its stake in AppLovin by 5,421.4% during the 4th quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. now owns 4,084,496 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,322,682,000 after purchasing an additional 4,010,520 shares during the period. 41.85% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.