From Market Underdog to Tech Titan| AppLovin’s Explosive Growth AppLovin: Making Ads Great Again, One Algorithm at a Time
AppLovin Corp, a prominent software company valued at $57 billion, offers an advanced mobile marketing platform. Over the past year, its stock price has surged by an impressive 500%, far outpacing the S&P 500’s 39% increase. The company’s financial growth is equally remarkable, with a year over year revenue boost of 40%, a 188% jump in operating profits, and a 300% surge in net income in its latest quarterly report
With 40% of the company held by insiders and a shareholder friendly stance that includes share buybacks, AppLovin presents a compelling investment opportunity. Additionally, its valuation remains competitive relative to other software companies, supporting my "buy" rating.
From Ad Nerds to Tech Lords, AppLovin’s Secret to Winning Over Wall Street
AppLovin operates a comprehensive software platform that helps clients achieve crucial KPIs, such as revenue growth and business expansion. Leveraging AI, its software platform stands out as a powerful tool for advertisers, providing capabilities like automated marketing, customer engagement, and monetization. It’s built to optimize targeted content delivery to the most suitable audience, supported by analytics and monetization features that drive maximum value.
At the core of AppLovin’s technology is AXON, an AI engine that powers AppDiscovery. This feature matches advertiser demand with publishing opportunities through a sophisticated real-time auction algorithm, shifting from traditional waterfall systems to an intelligent, programmatic approach.
AppLovin has positioned itself as a leader in the future of advertising, driven by its cutting-edge AI capabilities. I believe there’s immense growth potential here that the company is just beginning to explore.
Performance
In the third quarter, AppLovin reported a 39% year-over-year revenue increase, moving from $864 million to $1.2 billion. This marks its highest-ever quarterly revenue and extends its streak of sequential topline gains to seven quarters. For the first nine months of 2024, AppLovin saw a 43% year-to-date revenue increase, largely fueled by a 76% rise in software platform revenue. This growth was driven by AppDiscovery, whose installations surged by 39% in Q3, underscoring its strong appeal to advertisers.
Beyond software platform growth, AppLovin’s in-app purchases and advertising revenues also increased modestly by 3% and 7%, respectively, despite challenging comparisons, supported by a 53% boost in advertising impressions.
The company achieved record operating cash flows of over $550 million in Q3, alongside significant margin improvements across gross, operating, and EBITDA levels. These gains highlight the company’s explosive growth and underscore the stock’s 500% rise over the past year.
Given AppLovin’s strategic success and positive advertiser response, I anticipate ongoing improvements in cash flow and profit margins. With over $3.3 billion spent on share buybacks since 2022—$980 million in 2024 alone—the company continues to reward its shareholders while capitalizing on its profitable AI-driven platform.
Valuation
Although APP’s trailing P/E ratio of 74.52 and PS ratio of 19.33 might appear high compared to the IT sector averages, a comparison with peers in the Application Software industry reveals a different perspective.
In a peer group of large software companies, APP ranks third in EV/Sales ratio at 18.65 but also boasts a forward topline growth rate of over 24.1%, placing it among the top performers. This high growth potential appears to justify the stock’s premium, positioning it attractively in terms of PS ratio relative to anticipated growth.
Despite recent heavy buying, APP remains an appealing value investment. As long as it maintains its relative positioning, I continue to view the stock favorably.
Risks
Despite my optimism, I recognize that AppLovin’s momentum could be part of a broader AI-driven market surge, raising concerns about a potential AI bubble. If the market faces a downturn similar to the dot-com bubble, APP could experience a sharper decline than its peers, especially given its relatively weak balance sheet.
Additionally, with an RSI of 96 signaling heavy overbuying, there may be potential for a future correction. While APP’s 500% rise is impressive, it could be vulnerable if the market undergoes a broader correction
Conclusion
Advertising is on the cusp of an AI driven transformation, and AppLovin is well-positioned to capitalize on this shift with its powerful AI-enabled platform. Despite the stock’s impressive 12-month performance, there’s still significant growth potential
