AppLovin Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NASDAQ:APP)

AppLovin Co. (NASDAQ:APP) was the recipient of some unusual options trading activity on Tuesday. Traders acquired 25,179 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of 12% compared to the average daily volume of 22,439 call options.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on APP shares. Citigroup raised their target price on shares of AppLovin from $185.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, November 18th. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $270.00 target price (up from $170.00) on shares of AppLovin in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of AppLovin from $160.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Daiwa Capital Markets raised shares of AppLovin from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $80.00 to $280.00 in a research report on Friday, November 8th. Finally, Daiwa America raised shares of AppLovin from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, fourteen 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 price target of $265.57.

AppLovin Stock Performance

Shares of APP opened at $373.70 on Thursday. AppLovin has a 1 year low of $35.79 and a 1 year high of $384.50. The company has a market cap of $125.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 112.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.20 and a beta of 2.28. 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 fifty day moving average of $210.94 and a 200-day moving average of $130.10.

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

Insider Buying and Selling at AppLovin

In other news, Director Mary Margaret Hasti Georgiadis sold 30,500 shares of AppLovin stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $339.69, for a total transaction of $10,360,545.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 154,500 shares in the company, valued at $52,482,105. The trade was a 16.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Matthew Stumpf sold 21,101 shares of AppLovin stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $332.67, for a total transaction of $7,019,669.67. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 213,336 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $70,970,487.12. This trade represents a 9.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 914,895 shares of company stock worth $253,462,174. 14.69% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On AppLovin

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. FMR LLC boosted its position in shares of AppLovin by 622.8% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 7,893,237 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,030,462,000 after purchasing an additional 6,801,138 shares in the last quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC bought a new position in shares of AppLovin during the 2nd quarter valued at about $290,655,000. 1832 Asset Management L.P. boosted its position in shares of AppLovin by 977.2% during the 2nd quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 1,496,300 shares of the company’s stock valued at $124,522,000 after purchasing an additional 1,357,400 shares in the last quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC boosted its position in shares of AppLovin by 10.5% during the 3rd 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC boosted its position in shares of AppLovin by 31.3% during the 3rd quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 2,350,802 shares of the company’s stock valued at $306,897,000 after purchasing an additional 560,560 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.