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Tech / Advertising / Earnings
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AppLovin Jumped 31% on the Day the Nasdaq Fell 5.5%. Ad-Tech Split Into Winners and Losers
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A record quarter, a bigger buyback and a guide above Wall Street made AppLovin the session’s best performer on the market’s worst day since April 2025. Trade Desk and MNTN went the other way.
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KEEP OVER TRADING · OVERTIME · NOVEMBER 8, 2026
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AppLovin, Thursday close
+31%
To $356.10 after a record third quarter · the Nasdaq Composite fell 5.52% and entered a correction · Wedbush raised its target to $600
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Driving the news: AppLovin shares rose 31.04% to $356.10 on Thursday, a day when the S&P 500 fell 4.36% and the Nasdaq fell 5.52%, according to The Wall Street Republic. The mobile advertising company reported after Wednesday’s close that third-quarter revenue rose 55% to $2.18 billion, above the $2.07 billion analysts expected.
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The rest of ad-tech did not move together. Magnite rose about 17% and Unity about 10%, while The Trade Desk fell about 2%, 24/7 Wall St. reported. MNTN, a connected-TV advertising company, lost more than half its value after cutting its forecast, as we cover in today’s earnings roundup.
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Why it matters
AppLovin rose sharply while chipmakers and the Nasdaq sold off. Investors had worried about its mobile-game business and about competition. The report suggests the new AI-driven ad model is working, but the CEO said the rollout is only partial.
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$2.18B
Third-quarter revenue, up 55%
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66%
Net income margin, per the CFO
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$3.6B
Total buyback authorization
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Sources: 24/7 Wall St.; Yahoo Finance. The buyback figure is the total authorization as of the end of October.
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What AppLovin reported
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AppLovin, third quarter 2026
| Measure |
Result |
Comparison |
| Revenue |
$2.18 billion |
Up 55%; estimate $2.07 billion |
| Net income |
$1.44 billion |
Up 72% |
| Diluted EPS (GAAP) |
$4.30 |
Estimate $4.03 |
| Free cash flow |
$1.4 billion |
77% of adjusted EBITDA |
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Sources: 24/7 Wall St.; Yahoo Finance; Wall Street Republic. EPS includes $86.03 million of other income, net, versus a loss a year earlier.
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Operating income was $1.71 billion, according to the report. Chief Financial Officer Matt Stumpf described an “industry-leading 66% net income margin and 84% adjusted EBITDA margin.” Both margins match the arithmetic. Net income of $1.44 billion on $2.18 billion of revenue is 66%, and free cash flow of $1.4 billion at 77% of adjusted EBITDA implies adjusted EBITDA near $1.8 billion.
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The outlook mattered as much. AppLovin guided fourth-quarter revenue to $2.365 billion to $2.395 billion, above a $2.25 billion consensus from StockStory, and adjusted EBITDA to $1.995 billion to $2.025 billion, according to TipRanks. The guide assumes normal seasonality and more scaling in what the company calls its consumer vertical.
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KOT calculation
The Thursday close implies a Wednesday close of about $271.75. The revenue beat is 5.3% and the EPS beat is 6.7%. The fourth-quarter guidance midpoint of $2.38 billion is 5.8% above the $2.25 billion consensus and 9.2% above third-quarter revenue. Adjusted EBITDA at the guide midpoint of $2.01 billion is about 84.5% of revenue at its midpoint, in line with the CFO’s margin.
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Why investors cared
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Before the report, 24/7 Wall St. said investors worried about mobile-game growth and competitive pressure. Gaming, AppLovin’s core business, re-accelerated with the rollout of its new AI model, CEO Adam Foroughi said. Goldman Sachs analyst Eric Sheridan said core gaming rose nearly 50% from a year earlier and that management sees “early signs of performance improvements” from the new model improvements.
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“This was a partial rollout. The transition is still in front of us.”
— Adam Foroughi, AppLovin CEO
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That statement cuts both ways. It means more of the benefit may be ahead, and also that the company has not shown how the model performs at full scale. Foroughi also said the business “can compound at roughly 30% annually over the long term,” which is a goal, not a forecast.
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Analysts raised targets but not uniformly. Wedbush lifted its price target to $600 from $560, and Morgan Stanley raised its to $450 from $400, according to Investing.com and MarketScreener. Goldman Sachs moved to $445 from $400 but kept a Hold rating. Sheridan said he is “constructive” on AppLovin long term but wants more evidence that growth can last after recent volatile quarters, TipRanks reported.
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The ad-tech split
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Two ad-tech reports, two reactions
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Magnite
+17%
Connected-TV revenue, excluding traffic acquisition costs, rose 39%. Raised full-year outlook. Stock $26.75.
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The Trade Desk
−2%
The most recent report the article cited was August’s, which missed. Stock $13.01.
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Sources: 24/7 Wall St.; Yahoo Finance. Percentages are from the article text. Tickers on the pages showed different figures, such as +21.65% for Magnite and −3.17% for Trade Desk.
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Magnite’s chief executive, Michael Barrett, said full-year political spending is expected to be “nearly three times our initial forecast.” That is a midterm effect and may not repeat. Unity rose about 10% to $46.84 after its first GAAP-profitable quarter since its IPO, and said its Vector AI advertising platform grew 126% from a year earlier.
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The Trade Desk is the laggard. Its second-quarter revenue, reported Aug. 6, rose 3% and missed expectations, and CEO Jeff Green said the quarter “did not meet the standard we set for ourselves.” 24/7 Wall St. noted that it relies on large brand budgets, while mobile and in-app ad names led the group. We did not find a stated reason for Thursday’s 2% drop.
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Thursday’s ad-tech moves (percent, direction not shown)
| AppLovin |
31% |
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| Magnite |
17% |
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| Unity |
10% |
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| The Trade Desk |
2% |
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Sources: 24/7 Wall St.; Wall Street Republic. AppLovin, Magnite and Unity rose. The Trade Desk fell.
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MNTN is the cautionary case. It reported revenue of $80.3 million, below its guided $86 million to $89 million, cut full-year revenue guidance to $311 million to $314 million, and fell more than 50% at its low. Raymond James tied the miss to disruption in its sales organization after a compensation change. The sector’s results varied widely by company.
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What could go wrong
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The case against AppLovin is about durability. A 31% one-day gain prices in a lot of the good news. Goldman’s Hold rating is a reminder that even analysts who like the long-term picture want more proof.
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The buyback is real. The board lifted the total repurchase authorization to $3.6 billion, and free cash flow of $1.4 billion in one quarter gives the company room to use it. But an authorization is a ceiling, and we do not have the amount repurchased in the quarter from the sources we read.
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The size of the move is easy to see in dollars. The stock gained about $84 a share in one session, from roughly $271.75 to $356.10 by our math. Against Thursday’s close, Wedbush’s $600 target is about 68% higher, Morgan Stanley’s $450 is about 26% higher and Goldman’s $445 is about 25% higher. The spread between those targets, and Goldman’s Hold, shows that analysts agree on the quarter but not on how much of it is already in the price.
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Read the label
AppLovin’s one-day gain is 31.04% at the close in The Wall Street Republic, 29.81% in an intraday GuruFocus headline and about 30% in a morning report at $354.35. A page’s summary cited a 34% rally, which we did not use. We use the close and show the ranges. Magnite and Unity percentages also differ between article text and tickers. We could not read MNTN’s own release, so its details come from analysts and a law firm’s notice. This article is not investment advice.
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What to watch
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| Next quarter |
Whether AppLovin’s AI model rollout finishes, and whether gaming growth stays near 50%. |
| Next quarter |
The amount AppLovin actually buys back under its $3.6 billion authorization. |
| Next reports |
Whether other ad-tech names report mobile and connected-TV growth like Magnite and Unity, or weakness like The Trade Desk. |
| Q4 report |
AppLovin’s fourth-quarter revenue against its $2.365 billion to $2.395 billion range. |
| Any day |
Further analyst moves, including from Goldman, which still rates the stock Hold. |
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The bottom line: On a day when investors sold technology, AppLovin showed they will still pay for profit and growth in advertising. The other ad-tech stocks show that the reward depends on the company, not the category.
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Sources & methodology
Sources: 24/7 Wall St. and Yahoo Finance (AppLovin, Magnite, Trade Desk and Unity results); The Wall Street Republic (Thursday closing prices); TipRanks (Goldman Sachs); Investing.com and MarketScreener (Wedbush and Morgan Stanley targets; Raymond James on MNTN); CEO and CFO statements as quoted. Researched November 6, 2026. Where outlets disagree we show a range or name the source. Items marked KOT are our own calculation or analysis. For informational purposes only; not investment advice.
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