AppLovin Stock Falls Monday: What's Driving The Weakness?

AppLovin Corp (NASDAQ:APP) shares are trading lower Monday morning, as investors digest a fresh reminder that U.S. regulators are still scrutinizing the mobile advertising company. Here’s what investors need to know.

• AppLovin stock is among today’s weakest performers. Why are APP shares down?

SEC Investigation Remains Publicly Unresolved

The SEC on Friday told Bloomberg in a letter that an investigation involving AppLovin remains "active and ongoing" and that releasing internal correspondence could harm enforcement work by tipping off potential targets or revealing cooperating witnesses.

The regulator has not accused the company or its executives of wrongdoing but is examining its data-collection practices and whether it breached platform partners' rules, following a whistleblower complaint and short-seller reports.

Social Platform Ambitions Raise Stakes

Meanwhile, AppLovin is now laying groundwork for its own social platform after an unsuccessful attempt to buy TikTok's operations outside China, with job postings describing a "next-generation social platform" built for media delivery and real-time interaction — a move that would put it in more direct competition with giants such as Meta, TikTok and Snap.

Last week's rally in APP shares was fueled in part by social-media chatter that OpenAI had mentioned working with AppLovin to monetize ChatGPT with advertising during a capital-raise call.

Monday's pullback suggests investors are reassessing that speculative AI upside against the more concrete risk of an ongoing SEC probe.

Applovin Stock Under Pressure

Applovin is currently trading 14.1% below its 20-day simple moving average (SMA) and 34.4% below its 100-day SMA, indicating a bearish trend in the short to medium term.

Over the past 12 months, shares have decreased by 5.20%, and they are closer to their 52-week lows than highs, suggesting ongoing challenges for the stock.

The RSI is at 40.81, which is considered neutral territory, indicating that the stock is neither overbought nor oversold at this time. Meanwhile, the MACD shows a value of -49.0235, with the signal line at -51.7859, suggesting a bullish crossover, albeit in a bearish context.

The combination of neutral RSI and a bullish MACD indicates mixed momentum, reflecting uncertainty in the stock’s direction.

• Key Resistance: $429.00
• Key Support: $360.00

Analysts Maintain Buy Ratings

Analyst Consensus & Recent Actions: The stock carries a Buy Rating with an average price target of $708.41. Recent analyst moves include:

• Jefferies: Buy (Lowers Target to $700.00) (Feb. 12)
• Citigroup: Buy (Lowers Target to $710.00) (Feb. 12)
• UBS: Buy (Raises Target to $740.00) (Feb. 12)

APP Shares Slide Monday

APP Price Action: AppLovin shares were down 8.62% at $382.61 at the time of publication on Monday, according to Benzinga Pro data.

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