It's no secret that the surest way for a publicly traded company to be showered with a bunch of analyst price target raises is to post impressive quarterly results. That goes a long way to explaining the huge price gains of AppLovin(NASDAQ: APP) stock over the past few trading days. According to data compiled by S&P Global Market Intelligence, as of late Thursday evening the company's share price had ballooned by more than 26% week to date.
An estimates-trouncing final quarter of 2023
That share price pop is almost exclusively due to said results, which AppLovin published late on Wednesday.
In its fourth quarter, the company unambiguously crushed it on both revenue and profitability estimates from the analysts tracking its fortunes. On top of that, it demonstrated very solid growth on the top line, and made a dramatic swing into positive territory on the bottom. Investors also found AppLovin's guidance inspiring.
The following day, a clutch of analysts scrambled to revise their evaluations of the specialty tech stock. As a group those prognosticators became notably more bullish on the company, unhesitatingly raising their price targets.
AI-flavored growth
One of the more eager revisers was Jefferies' Andrew Uerkwitz, who on Thursday added a substantial $10 per share to his level for a new figure of $70. Describing AppLovin's quarter as "stellar," Uerkwitz pointed out that the company's artificial intelligence (AI)-infused Axon ad platform was taking market share and would likely continue doing so in the near future.
Almost needless to say, the bullish analyst maintained his buy recommendation on AppLovin stock.
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Eric Volkman has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Jefferies Financial Group. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
