Deutsche Bank believes that AppLovin could extend its reign of dominance going forward. Analyst Benjamin Black initiated the mobile advertising stock at a buy rating and price target of $705, which implies an upside of 28% ahead for the stock. Shares of AppLovin have surged 71% this year and rose 1.4% in premarket trading Wednesday. APP YTD mountain APP YTD chart As a catalyst, Black pointed to AppLovin’s position as the dominant player within the mobile games’ user acquisition advertising space, adding that its moat has grown increasingly deep. He noted that the company currently has about 80% market share on the supply side and over 55% on the demand side. “Other than select walled gardens, no other ad platform can rival its +1bn-strong DAU reach. APP has built best-in-class ad tech that becomes more performant the larger the company’s scale,” Black wrote. Meantime, the analyst applauded AppLovin’s expansion into e-commerce advertising, which has a total addressable market that is multiple times the size of the mobile game in-app advertising market. This could also increase the diversity of AppLovin’s ads. “Moving further down the road, we don’t discount the possibility of the company penetrating other larger categories like financial services, media & entertainment, healthcare, and any transactional service on the web,” Black added. In the near to medium term, the analyst expects AppLovin to deliver top line growth of between 20% to 30%, year over year. The company’s improving performance of its ad tech can be seen through it growing its revenue at an annual rate of 69% over the last three years, with virtually no incremental costs, Black noted. ( Learn the best 2026 strategies from inside the NYSE with Josh Brown and others at CNBC PRO Live. Tickets and info here . )
