Advertising and marketing technologies are accelerating their integration. RBC: AppLovin (APP.US) is expected to be the biggest beneficiary, first giving it an "Outperform" rating.

Royal Bank of Canada's capital market RBC Capital Markets released a research report, initiating coverage on the leading AI application company AppLovin (APP.US) for the first time, giving it an "outperform" rating and setting a target price of $700. Analysts led by Matthew Swanson pointed out that as the importance of return on advertising spend (ROAS) and attribution analysis surpasses the form of advertising and distribution channels, advertising technology and marketing technology are accelerating integration. The analyst stated, "AppLovin's platform coverage continues to expand, with more diverse sources of demand, and is leveraging personalized marketing and the e-commerce retail media trend to unleash long-term growth potential, the company is expected to significantly benefit from it." Swanson and his team believe that AppLovin's fixed cost model is expected to achieve excess growth throughout 2026, and profit margins will remain industry-leading. This assessment supports their "outperform" rating and target price of $700. Last week, Wedbush, after participating in a consultant conference call with AppLovin, also raised its target price for the stock from $725 to $745. Meanwhile, Oppenheimer stated that despite the possibility of "more disruptive information" in the future, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) potential investigation into AppLovin is not expected to have a substantial impact. Earlier reports suggested that the SEC is conducting a potential investigation into the data collection process of this digital advertising technology company.