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Luke Kawa

AppLovin surges as the ad tech company prepares Q4 “bazooka” in what CEO says will be “a fun quarter”

AppLovin, which initially failed to impress traders with a revenue beat and better-than-expected Q3 sales guidance, is now on fire, up double digits as of 10:50 a.m. ET.

And that’s in large part because CEO Adam Foroughi said the real “fun” starts in Q4, when the company will open its self-service ad portal on a referral basis to onboard new advertisers and boost its footprint in areas outside of gaming, with a full-scale launch planned for the first half of 2026.

Here’s what Foroughi said (emphasis added):

“We think our advertisers are going to cause an onboarding moment that’ll be multiples bigger than what we were manually curating. Now it’s not necessarily true that we’re going to take our queue that’s built over the last year and just say, everyone, you’re in.

They’re still going to have to get invited to get into the platform. So it will be still curated onboarding. The reality is, Q4 is going to end up being a fun quarter. You’ve got the advertiser cohort that we didn’t have last Q4 that was growing in the quarter to the point where we reported huge numbers and then had huge numbers in Q1, but we’re going to have those advertisers primed and ready to go for the full Q4.

We’re going to have those advertisers inviting their friends onto our platform in Q4, and we’re going to be opening up international all at the same time. So there’s going to be a lot of fun moments, moments for us and our customers in this e-commerce or web-based category that’ll set sort of a new baseline for that business. And then obviously, then we will go through hopefully another inflection when we really truly open up the platform and try to get into a state where we’re more stable long-term.”

Morgan Stanley analyst Matthew Cost boosted his price target on the stock to $480 from $460. “We are fundamentally bullish on the self-serve initiative, which the company made clear will simplify onboarding and workflows, widen the funnel of non-gaming advertisers, open the product to international markets, and put the infrastructure in place to allow AI-generated ads and agentic support over time,” he wrote.

Bank of America analyst Omar Dessouky described the messaging around this catalyst as AppLovin loading a fourth-quarter “bazooka.” However, he also lowered his expected multiple for the company while keeping the price target unchanged thanks to a big boost to earnings estimates, citing “execution risk” associated with this launch.

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SpaceX received more than a dozen positive analyst calls on Tuesday — including from major Wall Street banks — as they initiate coverage on Elon Musk’s space and AI company.

SpaceX went public on June 12 at a $2.2 trillion valuation, the largest debut in history. While the company hasn’t yet posted a profit, it seems to have convinced Wall Street that it will get there and grow its valuation on the way.

Of the at least 17 analysts that gave a rating on Tuesday, all but one gave it a “buy” or “outperform” rating. MoffettNathanson was "neutral."

The ratings come as SpaceX joined the Nasdaq 100 index, a benchmark tech-heavy basket of companies that underpins millions of portfolios. The inclusion adds built-in demand for the stock from index funds and ETFs.

Still, SpaceX fell more than 5% on Tuesday amid a broader sell-off, and is currently effectively flat from its opening price of $150 a share.

Luke Kawa
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Paige Oamek

Nike sinks to lowest level since 2014 after warning of “challenged” sales environment in Q4 report

Did Nike do it?

Investors had a mixed reaction after the global sports apparel company reported its fourth quarter earnings on Tuesday after the bell. Shares initially rose 5% as Nike beat out Wall Street expectations amid a hefty tariff refund bonus. However, the stock then sank to its lowest level since August 2014 in postmarket trading.

Here are the Q4 numbers:

  • Revenue of $11.0 billion (estimate: $10.8 billion).

  • Adjusted earnings per share of $0.20 (estimate: $0.12).

Ahead of this report, Nike warned that results would be flattered by a one-time tariff refund (now estimated at roughly $0.52 per share for the bottom line). That gave the company an extra cushion in snapping its streak of seven quarters of year-over-year profit declines.

Over the past year, the company had been punished by tariffs on imported goods, stagnant consumer spending, and increasing competition from other footwear brands like New Balance, Adidas, and Hoka.

Outgoing CFO Matthew Friend deemed it an “increasingly challenging operating environment, where sell-through remains challenged.”

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