AppLovin earnings: third quarter 2026

AppLovin, which runs a platform that places advertising in mobile apps, had another quarter of very fast growth. Sales rose 55% to $2,185 million against a year ago, and net income rose 72% to $1,439 million. Sales also came in above the range of $2,055 million to $2,085 million that the company itself had forecast three months earlier. Nearly all of that profit arrived as cash, and the company used most of it to buy back its own shares while its cash pile still grew. The blemishes are small. Customers owe it noticeably more money than at the start of the year. A slice of the profit growth came from gains outside the core business. ¹

Against what analysts expected

Profit per share of $4.30 came in about 9% above the $3.94 analysts expected on average, according to Nasdaq's earnings calendar. ¹²

The strong points

• Sales rose 55% from a year ago, and profit grew even faster, so the company kept more of each dollar it took in. ¹
• Free cash flow, the cash left after running and investing in the business, was $1.4 billion, almost exactly the quarter's net income. ¹
• Even after spending $1.4 billion on buying back shares in the quarter, the company's cash rose to about $3.2 billion while its debt stayed flat. ¹

The weak points

• Money owed by customers rose about 31% since the end of last year, tying up cash that has been booked as sales but not yet collected. ¹
• Part of the jump in net income came from items outside the core business, a gain of $86 million against a small loss a year ago. ¹

What the company expects

• For the fourth quarter the company expects sales of $2,365 million to $2,395 million, above the $2,185 million it just reported. ¹
• The company expects to keep 84% to 85% of sales as adjusted operating profit in the fourth quarter, and its last forecast proved cautious: it had expected 83% for the third quarter and delivered 84%. ¹

Our verdict on the quarter

A strong report. Profit per share came in well above what analysts expected and sales grew 55%, though the company gave only a first forecast for the next quarter, so there was no raised outlook to make it stronger still.

The results as published

• The results release itself
• The filing it came with (SEC)
• The previous results, for what it forecast then

Notes

1. AppLovin's results release, 4 November 2026: sec.gov. ↩
2. Nasdaq's earnings calendar, 4 November 2026. ↩