AppFolio (APPF) Ascends But Remains Behind Market: Some Facts to Note

AppFolio (APPF) closed the most recent trading day at $157.82, moving +1.28% from the previous trading session. The stock fell short of the S&P 500, which registered a gain of 2.91% for the day. On the other hand, the Dow registered a gain of 2.49%, and the technology-centric Nasdaq increased by 3.83%.

The property management software maker's stock has dropped by 13.72% in the past month, falling short of the Computer and Technology sector's loss of 9.45% and the S&P 500's loss of 7.64%.

Investors will be eagerly watching for the performance of AppFolio in its upcoming earnings disclosure. In that report, analysts expect AppFolio to post earnings of $1.44 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 19.01%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $258.04 million, up 18.53% from the year-ago period.

APPF's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $6.43 per share and revenue of $1.11 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +21.55% and +16.72%, respectively.

Investors should also pay attention to any latest changes in analyst estimates for AppFolio. These revisions typically reflect the latest short-term business trends, which can change frequently. Therefore, positive revisions in estimates convey analysts' confidence in the business performance and profit potential.

Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-term stock moves. To exploit this, we've formed the Zacks Rank, a quantitative model that includes these estimate changes and presents a viable rating system.

The Zacks Rank system, which varies between #1 (Strong Buy) and #5 (Strong Sell), carries an impressive track record of exceeding expectations, confirmed by external audits, with stocks at #1 delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the last 30 days, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has witnessed an unchanged state. At present, AppFolio boasts a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

In the context of valuation, AppFolio is at present trading with a Forward P/E ratio of 24.22. This denotes a premium relative to the industry average Forward P/E of 18.75.

The Internet - Software industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 151, putting it in the bottom 39% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

You can find more information on all of these metrics, and much more, on Zacks.com.

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AppFolio, Inc. (APPF): Free Stock Analysis Report

This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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