Piper Sandler has trimmed its 12-month price objective for AppLovin Corp (NASDAQ:APP) to $650.00 from $800.00, while continuing to rate the stock Overweight. The adjustment comes against a backdrop in which the shares were trading at $456.81, notably below analyst targets and well under the consensus high target of $860, per InvestingPro data.
The research note highlighted AppLovin's fourth-quarter 2025 performance as a "clean beat & raise," with EBITDA coming in mid-single digits above Street expectations despite a volatile market and a more selective demand environment. Piper Sandler pointed to the companys first-quarter revenue guidance, which calls for 5-7% quarter-over-quarter growth and represents an improvement versus the year-ago period. The firm attributed that outlook to a robust gaming market and favorable e-commerce trends.
AppLovin's most recent twelve-month results include a 98.48% increase in revenue, bringing annual revenue to $6.31 billion. Piper Sandler also addressed investors' concerns about competitive pressure - specifically demand-side threats from Meta and supply-side competition from Cloud X - noting that AppLovin has invested for years to develop differentiated products on both sides of its business model.
With a market capitalization of $154.38 billion, AppLovin remains a significant player within the Software sector. Piper Sandler characterized its price-target revision as the product of higher internal estimates but a compression in the multiple applied to those estimates, and the firm reiterated that investors should remain buyers of the shares.
InvestingPro flags 17 additional investment pointers for AppLovin, encompassing valuation metrics and a financial health score, available through its Pro Research Report.
Other brokerages reacted to AppLovin's results and guidance with their own target and rating updates. Evercore ISI lowered its price target to $750 from $835 while maintaining an Outperform rating. Needham kept its Buy rating and a $700 price target, citing strong quarterly results and raising future estimates. BTIG cut its target to $640 from $771 but maintained a Buy rating, noting that AppLovin's first-quarter guidance implies high single-digit growth.
AppLovin's reported fourth-quarter 2025 results showed adjusted earnings per share of $3.24, ahead of the consensus $2.96, and revenue of $1.66 billion versus analysts' expectations of $1.61 billion. Despite that upside, the company's first-quarter guidance did not meet investor expectations, which contributed to downward pressure on the stock price.
Collectively, these analyst moves reflect a mixture of strong near-term operating results and more cautious forward-looking views from equity research teams, as firms balance the outperformance in the quarter with guidance that fell short of some investor hopes.