Nations Financial Group Inc. IA ADV Purchases Shares of 6,800 AppLovin Co. (NASDAQ:APP)

Nations Financial Group Inc. IA ADV purchased a new stake in AppLovin Co. (NASDAQ:APP) in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor purchased 6,800 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,202,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in APP. Sanctuary Advisors LLC purchased a new position in AppLovin in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $241,000. CWM LLC boosted its position in AppLovin by 40.0% in the 3rd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 4,659 shares of the company’s stock valued at $608,000 after buying an additional 1,331 shares during the period. Creative Planning lifted its position in shares of AppLovin by 251.2% during the 3rd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 144,883 shares of the company’s stock worth $18,914,000 after purchasing an additional 103,628 shares during the last quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. lifted its position in shares of AppLovin by 5.7% during the 3rd quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. now owns 13,178 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,720,000 after purchasing an additional 708 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bleakley Financial Group LLC lifted its position in shares of AppLovin by 87.5% during the 3rd quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC now owns 9,648 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,260,000 after purchasing an additional 4,503 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 41.85% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

APP has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of AppLovin from $335.00 to $460.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. Loop Capital lifted their price objective on shares of AppLovin from $385.00 to $450.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 16th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on shares of AppLovin from $220.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on shares of AppLovin from $250.00 to $435.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. Finally, Daiwa America upgraded shares of AppLovin from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 8th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $422.18.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO Herald Y. Chen sold 400 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $366.16, for a total transaction of $146,464.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 207,649 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $76,032,757.84. The trade was a 0.19 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CTO Vasily Shikin sold 593,588 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $319.37, for a total transaction of $189,574,199.56. Following the sale, the chief technology officer now directly owns 3,919,024 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,251,618,694.88. This represents a 13.15 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 828,991 shares of company stock valued at $267,640,144 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 14.69% of the company’s stock.

AppLovin Trading Up 8.2 %

NASDAQ APP opened at $510.13 on Friday. 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 market cap of $171.19 billion, a PE ratio of 154.59, a P/E/G ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 2.30. AppLovin Co. has a one year low of $52.75 and a one year high of $525.15. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $351.33 and its two-hundred day moving average is $230.42.

AppLovin (NASDAQ:APP) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The company reported $1.73 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.12 by $0.61. AppLovin had a net margin of 26.85% and a return on equity of 122.24%. Analysts expect that AppLovin Co. will post 4.09 earnings per share for the current year.

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.