AppLovin Corp. and Unity Software Inc. shares rallied Thursday after both app-monetization companies turned in better-than-expected results and forecasts late Wednesday, but analysts were cautious about how fast the mobile ad market was recovering.
AppLovin APP shares soared as much as 29% to an intraday high of $23 to more than double their price year to date. Unity U shares rallied as much as 14% to an intraday high of $32.78, and are up 12% year to date. In comparison, the S&P 500 index SPX is up more than 7%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index COMP is up 17.5%.
“Commentary from both Unity and Applovin indicate the mobile gaming market may be troughing and if so, may grow single digits again in the future,” Uerkwitz said, seeing little evidence of a return to double-digit topline growth. “We agree the market isn’t getting worse but see little evidence of a return to meaningful growth.“Is this Step 1 of the App Economy’s Recovery?” Morgan Stanley analyst Matthew Cost asked in a Thursday note.
“That said, we have remained cautious on the speed with which this early-stage [in-app purchase] recovery might carry over the in-app advertising market,” Cost said. “We believe that results so far this earnings cycle have validated that caution.”