AppFolio (NASDAQ:APPF) Upgraded to “Buy” at Wall Street Zen

AppFolio (NASDAQ:APPF) was upgraded by investment analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note issued on Sunday.

APPF has been the topic of several other reports. Weiss Ratings lowered AppFolio from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Friday, January 16th. Piper Sandler decreased their target price on AppFolio from $350.00 to $245.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 30th. KeyCorp reissued an “overweight” rating on shares of AppFolio in a research note on Monday, February 2nd. DA Davidson cut their price target on shares of AppFolio from $325.00 to $275.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 30th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company restated a “buy” rating on shares of AppFolio in a research report on Thursday, January 15th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, AppFolio presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $270.83.

AppFolio Stock Down 2.1%

APPF stock opened at $172.50 on Friday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $195.40 and its 200-day simple moving average is $229.94. AppFolio has a 52-week low of $161.13 and a 52-week high of $326.04. The firm has a market cap of $6.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 44.46 and a beta of 0.75.

AppFolio (NASDAQ:APPF) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The software maker reported $1.39 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.22 by $0.17. The firm had revenue of $248.19 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $246.56 million. AppFolio had a return on equity of 29.79% and a net margin of 14.82%.AppFolio’s revenue for the quarter was up 21.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.92 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that AppFolio will post 3.96 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO William Shane Trigg sold 6,963 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $169.73, for a total transaction of $1,181,829.99. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 52,920 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,982,111.60. The trade was a 11.63% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 4.68% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in APPF. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in AppFolio by 4.1% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,560,460 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $595,691,000 after purchasing an additional 101,466 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of AppFolio by 6.8% in the fourth quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,245,949 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $289,880,000 after buying an additional 79,197 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of AppFolio by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 685,656 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $159,518,000 after buying an additional 7,585 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its position in AppFolio by 17.2% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 669,317 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $155,717,000 after acquiring an additional 98,230 shares during the last quarter. Finally, William Blair Investment Management LLC boosted its position in AppFolio by 15.6% during the fourth quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 638,241 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $148,487,000 after acquiring an additional 86,272 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 85.19% of the company’s stock.

AppFolio Company Profile

AppFolio, Inc is a Santa Barbara–based provider of cloud-based software solutions for the property management and legal industries. Founded in 2006 by former software executives, the company went public on the NASDAQ under the symbol APPF in 2015. Its original offering, AppFolio Property Manager, automates accounting, marketing, leasing, and maintenance functions for residential, commercial, student housing, and community association managers.

In 2019, AppFolio expanded its portfolio with the acquisition of MyCase, a web-based legal practice management platform for small to mid-size law firms.