Unity Software stock slides nearly 20% as mobile-ad spending dries ... - Morningstar

By Wallace Witkowski

Currently weak quarter places pressure on second half of year

Unity Software Inc. shares dropped nearly 20% Thursday after Wall Street was skeptical of the gaming engine and app monetization company's full-year forecast given a currently weak quarter and shrinking ad spending.

Unity (U) shares fell as much as 19% to an intraday low of $30.75, their worst drop since May 11, 2022, when shares plunged 37.1% after the company revealed a flaw in its ad targeting tools that it had once touted as a workaround to Apple Inc.'s (AAPL)opt-out of using Identifier for Advertisers, or IDFA, in its privacy update

Late Wednesday, Unity's forecast fell short of the Street consensus, and while the company told shareholders it was not forecasting a recovery in the mobile games ad market in 2023, one would be dependent upon an improving economy.

Unity forecast revenue of $470 million to $480 million for the first quarter, compared with the Street's $520.5 million consensus at the time, and revenue of $2.05 billion to $2.2 billion for the year, just short of the Street's $2.21 billion estimate.

Jefferies analyst Andrew Uerkwitz, who has an underperform rating and a $22 price target, said he was cautious on the company's second-half weighted forecast.

Uerkwitz said the company's 2023 forecast is "hard to bridge" given the soft first-quarter forecast, which puts pressure on the second half of the year, in a time when operating expenditure budgets are shrinking.

Earlier in the month, Unity shares had rallied alongside those of AppLovin Corp. (APP), which topped Wall Street estimates and said that the mobile-ad market was "remaining relatively stable."

The Jefferies analyst said he was surprised that Unity was being more conservative against a strong holiday ads quarter given AppLovin's flat guide and Unity execs claiming that they are taking share.

Earlier In February: AppLovin's stock soars more than 30% as Wall Street sees a bottom for mobile-ad market

Now, AppLovin shares fell alongside those of Unity's, dropping as much as 7% Thursday, while the S&P 500 index and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index were relatively flat.

Morgan Stanley analyst Matthew Cost, who has an equal-weight rating and a $27.50 price target, said he believed "this step down is driven by management's expectation of a 10% [year-over-year] decline in the overall in-game ads market in '23, as well as some seasonality from 4Q to 1Q."

Overall, Cost said he was concerned about the mobile-ad market with "material" year-over-year declines expected as game publishers face pressure as consumer spending on mobile games may be bottoming.

"Put another way, we expect advertisers to have incrementally less to spend promoting their apps in '23 than they did in '22," Cost said.

Of the 26 analysts who cover Unity, 14 have buy-grade ratings, nine have hold ratings, and three have sell ratings, along with an average price target of $38.34, according to FactSet data.

-Wallace Witkowski

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

02-24-23 0824ET

Copyright (c) 2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.