What Happened?
Shares of mobile app technology company AppLovin (NASDAQ: APP) jumped 6.4% in the morning session after analysts at Benchmark and Jefferies raised their price targets on the stock, signaling increased confidence in the company's future. Benchmark lifted its price target to $775 from $700, while Jefferies increased its target to $860 from $800. Both firms maintained a "Buy" rating on the shares. According to the research from Benchmark, the company's prospects strengthened due to several factors. These included accelerating traction in e-commerce, a clear plan to scale its AXON Ads self-serve platform, and an expansion of its creative capabilities through Generative AI.
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What Is The Market Telling Us
AppLovin’s shares are extremely volatile and have had 58 moves greater than 5% over the last year. In that context, today’s move indicates the market considers this news meaningful but not something that would fundamentally change its perception of the business.
The previous big move we wrote about was 9 days ago when the stock gained 3.6% on the news that the company provided a positive business update during its presentation at the Nasdaq 53rd Investor Conference. During the conference, AppLovin highlighted that its mobile gaming and ad tech growth remained robust. This strength was driven by ongoing improvements to its models and the introduction of new self-serve tools for clients. The company also noted that its AI-powered advertising solutions were successfully expanding its advertisers' reach, pointing to continued market expansion.
AppLovin is up 105% since the beginning of the year, and at $699.23 per share, it is trading close to its 52-week high of $724.62 from December 2025. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of AppLovin’s shares at the IPO in April 2021 would now be looking at an investment worth $10,724.
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