Kyle Reidhead
CEO & Analyst of Milk Road/Milk Road AI
AppLovin's e-commerce push looks real, making the beaten-down stock an incredible entry. A member of AppLovin's e-commerce team who works with its largest advertisers said results for non-gaming businesses are absolutely cranking and budgets are rising across many commerce clients; that is one person's word. Per @m0xt_, Northbeam data show AXON's share of tracked ad budgets jumped to 2.34% in the week of Sep 20-27, from about 1.7-1.9% through August and September. x.comÂ
AppLovin looks like an attractive ad-tech opportunity around $280 because its advertising platform has opened to all businesses, offering access to over 1 billion daily users, and management expects Q3 revenue above $2B. Shares are down nearly 62% from $733 despite Q2 revenue growth of 53% year over year. x.comÂ
AppLovin looks cheap for its growth, at just 15 times forward earnings after 61% growth over the last twelve months. More marketers have lately mentioned AppLovin as a place they want to spend, though the stock is a controversial pick. x.comÂ
AppLovin's ad yield engine has run out of gas, setting up the same structural decay that hit The Trade Desk as ad spend consolidates into walled gardens. Conversion rates stalling around 1.4%, delayed AI rollouts and mounting litigation point to a fundamental tailspin that Piper Sandler's cautious call understates. Being down 60% this year is not a bottom; buying here is catching a falling knife on a broken narrative. x.comÂ
The market is badly wrong about AppLovin, which is down almost 60% over the past year while the business keeps growing. Revenue is up 52.8% year over year, the stock trades at 16x forward earnings, and the company is expanding beyond mobile gaming ads. x.comÂ
AppLovin's selloff prices in a significant slowdown while the underlying numbers remain incredible, making the risk/reward interesting. Q2 revenue rose 53% to $1.92B at an 84% adjusted EBITDA margin, and Q3 guidance implies 46-48% growth. It generates billions in free cash flow on a ~$100B market cap, has only ~$700M of net debt and buys back shares. Expanding into e-commerce could greatly enlarge its market; slower AI model gains and competition from Meta and Alphabet are the risks. x.comÂ
AppLovin needs a very clean quarter to rebuild confidence. Investors question how much market-share runway its gaming ad business has left and how sustainable its very high margins are, and last quarter's model-upgrade cadence issues raised new execution concerns. Gaming ads must remain the central growth engine, since e-commerce will not be big enough for a while. x.com x.comÂ
AppLovin is finally at the cheap adtech multiple worth owning it at, while its execution remains exceptional. x.comÂ
AppLovin looks cheap at about 22x forward earnings, down 57% from its high, while growth and cash flow stay strong. Revenue grew 53% to $1.92B with an 84% EBITDA margin and $863M of quarterly free cash flow. The SEC closed its inquiry with no action, e-commerce advertiser spend hit a record, and model improvements after Q2 are driving a strong Q3 start. It bought back $551M of stock last quarter, with $1.8B still authorized. x.comÂ
AppLovin is in a dying, cutthroat business: mobile is not growing, and culturally people are tired of ads. x.com x.comÂ
AppLovin does not need a multiple premium to work from here, but its growth has to hold up, and the market is becoming less certain of it. Apple is Google's and Meta's largest advertiser by revenue, a dynamic that can be extrapolated to AppLovin. Time and execution will decide. x.com x.comÂ
