William Blair upgrades AppFolio on more favorable risk/reward setup

William Blair upgraded AppFolio to Outperform from Market Perform without a price target. The analyst has grown “increasingly supportive” of the company’s strategic and financial direction. Over the last few years, AppFolio has exceeded expectations in its ability to add new units, has shown an increasing focus on profitability, is likely to see a “significant uplift” from the recent decision to monetize ACH payments, and has a new management team that is increasing transparency and cost discipline across the organization, the analyst tells investors in a research note. The fir says many of the concerns that it had when downgrading the hares in May 2020 have abated. AppFolio’s risk/reward setup is becoming “much more favorable even with a valuation that is far from inexpensive,” writes Blair.