$APP · Schwab Network · 2026-11-10

Investors not loving app loving today and then some of your data doesn't look great for it. Yeah, so this has been a volatile stock. If you think about the last two um earnings reports that it's put out in Q2, we saw the stock fall I think nearly 20% following earnings and then this quarter we saw it jump up pretty significantly.

Um and so when we look at this in our data, we do have a little bit of a mixed bag. and when you look at overall mentions of Applo, so people talking about its platform and utilizing its products, those are up by about 41% on a year-over-year basis. and um some nice momentum especially even in the last quarter and I think that that's something that investors really like to see.

Obviously, you can see the stock pop up following its earnings event on that dashed line there.

But when you look at the momentum versus the momentum say in 2025, obviously this is a bit of a slowdown just in terms of overall um you know sentiment for the company. But we have seen especially on its last result if you look at you know revenue growth it jumped up about 55% year-over-year from about 53% the prior quarter.

And the the key here is that its AI model improved it. it released some updates and it saw stronger adoption among advertisers. It got better at targeting and putting ads um in front of consumers that were more likely to purchase.

And um I think that that's critical that this is really what's important to watch moving forward is can it continue to get better at targeting and keep um increasing that ad spend.

So we saw that it did do this last quarter, but I think that this is still a name that, you know, is one to watch in our data.

As you see this line right there, if you look at that, you know, divergence, it's not necessarily super compelling. So this is still one on our watch list after last quarter, even though we did like the signs that we saw of, you know, better adoption, especially following its improved AI model that led to some better targeting.

Yeah, Megan, uh, on their last earnings, uh, nice 30% spike, uh, but the stock had pulled back pretty significantly on that. Are you guys seeing any trend and as far as these, you know, that your one chart's got app, uh, you know, applovening versus adtech peers and it's at the bottom.

Is that the key for them? because they had a slowdown in the rollouts on some of their platforms and maybe that caused a lot of pain earlier this year, but are you seeing any changes in that that uh where that might improve?

You know, one thing that we think could be happening here is this is really reflective of it self-service model and I think even app admitted that this wasn't the best model that you know clients who are most successful work directly with their team.

But this is certainly something to watch moving forward because you have Unity who is a smaller player but growing a bit quicker and we see that adoption rising a little bit better.

So you know Apploven certainly isn't the only name in this space that advertisers have an option to go to. So it's interesting to watch Unity there but whenever you think about things from the stock perspective I think part of the reason we saw such an explosive reaction is because the stocks had pulled back so much. you know, even with the 40% gain, the stock is still trading, I think, down over 40% year-over-year.

So, still a pretty significant draw down from levels that we've previously seen.

Appleven has the steepest decline when you look at it but in some of your data it looks better for app 11 mentions on uh X are up uh sharply more than 40% but then the visits to the ad platform are down.

So how do you you know square the disconnect between that?

Yeah. So, I think that the the web visits that I mentioned, this is just they're not performing as well on that self-service platform, but I don't think that's what's driving the majority of um their attention, at least from advertisers.

A lot of the advertisers work directly with the team to to get these placements on these mobile apps, these mobile gaming apps. And whenever you look at mentions, as you see here, AppLin is trailing only Google, which is pretty significant.

And so this is one that whenever you think about things from a year-over-year basis, this is one that's ga garnering a lot of attention.

And I think that its new AI model is one of the ways is is the big attention grabber that we're at least seeing whenever we look at mentions. So this is one where we'll certainly want to watch moving forward because we know they deployed an update ahead of this quarter, but the the update is not complete.

They expect to see continuous improvements in the coming holiday quarter and that's going to be really critical.

So I think that you know it's it's important to be a bit cautious because we have seen this stock swing hard in both directions but it is positive that we're starting to see these mentions grow at this rate and and best peers there but but certainly you know the bar is higher now after this big move that we saw after earnings.

Uh, Megan, you know, you look at their uh potential growth here, right? They're they got mobile app, game developers, e-commerce brands and retailers. You know, when in in this AI age that we're in, is this, you know, one of those areas that is susceptible at all times?

Are they susceptible like a trade desk or anybody else that you know is trying to do this advertising you know uh basically sector that they're susceptible to AI and uh other companies at all times. Yeah, they're certainly susceptible.

You know, a lot of times when you think about advertisers, they're not necessarily loyal to a specific platform. They're loyal to whatever gets the results and places their product in front of consumers who want their product and who will actually click through and buy.

So it looks like recently at least AppL is doing a better job of this. Um but it'll certainly be remain to be seen, you know, how other competitors kind of come into the fold. This is one that we really have to watch on a quarter overquarter basis to see how things shake up.

But I will say at least in our data, it does look like like those mentions that are growing, I think that that is positive. Um and that is a little bit of a market share gain that we didn't necessarily see last quarter.

So things starting to look like they're falling in the right direction, but certainly we'll have to watch before um earnings again.

But then plus you have some positive signs as you mentioned. But it overall it seems sounds like it gives you pause for app. What would it take for you to um gain more confidence?

You know we want to see this continued growth. We'd like to see some improvements in sentiment. I think that it is a little bit alarming that the site visits so visits from advertisers themselves have dropped off a bit.

That's a little bit of a a question mark on the momentum gauge.

I think that management on the call tried to explain it away a little bit in terms of its self-service platform, And if AppL can continue to do this, like it showed that it was better at doing this this quarter, I think that that's a really positive sign.

But for us, you know, we're we're a little bit cautious moving ahead because we've seen, you know, small tweaks in its AI model really move things in opposite direction. So, we want to see continued traction there.

This is an area of growth that app has touted recently. Um, companies getting into streaming. So, kind of coming at a little bit of the trade desk market there.

So, certainly some areas to watch for continued improvement moving forward.