Mobile adtech company AppLovin (APP +0.66%) was certainly feeling the investor love on Thursday, as bullish market players bid the company's stock up by almost 3%. Much of this was attributable to an analyst's move early that morning. AppLovin's bounce was higher than that of the S&P 500 (^GSPC +0.81%), which saw an uptick of 0.8% across the trading session.
A price target increase after meeting with executives
Well before market open, Jefferies' James Heaney pulled the lever on an AppLovin price target raise. In his view, the stock is now worth $615 per share, well up from his previous assessment of $560. With the move, Heaney kept his existing buy recommendation intact.
Image source: Getty Images.
Heaney's adjustment followed a meeting with AppLovin's CEO Adam Foroughi and CFO Matt Stumpf, according to reports.
In his update, Heaney detailed several major takeaways from that discussion. First, he believes the mobile adtech market has numerous drivers that will soon propel it notably higher. Second, the company's expansion into advertising for non-game mobile apps, and in-app purchases, could produce significant growth.
Finally, the analyst believes that despite high levels of investment, AppLovin should be able to maintain its meaningful earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) margins of over 80%.
NASDAQ: APP
Key Data Points
Revenue forecasts raised
Heaney's discussion with the AppLovin executives also inspired him to slightly raise (by 2%) his estimate for the company's full-year 2026 revenue, on the back of roughly $2 billion in net web advertising revenue. The pundit also bumped his fourth-quarter 2025 top-line projection 1% higher.
