We recently published a list of Billionaire Ray Dalio’s Bridgewater’s 10 Stock Picks with Huge Upside Potential. In this article, we are going to take a look at where AppLovin Corporation (NASDAQ:APP) stands against Billionaire Ray Dalio’s Bridgewater’s other stock picks with huge upside potential.
Up until February 18, 2025, the stock market seemed poised to replicate the 2020-2022 bull run. Save for slight corrections in April and August of 2024, the market was in a general upside trend. And investors expected the trend to intensify, thanks to the Trump effect. But before President Trump’s re-election, some voices, including that of Ray Dalio, pointed out the potential risks of this presidency to the market.
Ray Dalio established Bridgewater Associates in 1975. But as of 2025, the billionaire investor isn’t part of the hedge fund’s key management. He currently acts as co-chief investment officer (CIO) mentor and member of the Bridgewater Board. Dalio also runs his family office, the Dalio Family Office, which manages over $15 billion in assets. He also does philanthropy work and he hasn’t stepped away from sharing his economic and investment insights through books, interviews, and social media.
Bridgewater has grown to become the largest and most renowned investment firm in the world. Over the past 10 years, the fund has returned 39.40%, and 17.30% over the past 12 months. However, just like Dalio predicted, the Trump administration’s policies could jeopardize Bridgewater’s ability to reward investors.
Since taking office for the second term, Trump has made tariffs a key part of his government’s economic policy. He issued an executive order on his first day in office and threatened 25% tariffs on all goods from China, Canada, and Mexico. The tariffs escalated through Liberation Day in April. All this time, the S&P 500 was taking one hit after another. For instance, the broad market index pulled back 12% between April 2 and April 8, 2025. April 2 happens to be the day of Trump’s Liberation Day speech that marked a major tariff escalation.
READ ALSO: Billionaire Jim Simons’ RenTech’s 10 Small-Cap Stock Picks with Huge Upside Potential and Billionaire Chase Coleman’s 10 Stocks with Huge Upside Potential.
Although the equity market appears to be correcting as of May 1, 2025 (the S&P 500 is up 12% since April 8), Dalio believes that Trump’s tariffs have wrought irreversible damage. According to a post on X on Monday, Dalio said that many of his indicators tell him that “we are on the brink of the monetary order, the domestic political and the international world orders breaking down due to unsustainable, bad fundamentals.”
While appearing on NBC’s “Meet the Press” show recently, Dalio sustained his dissatisfaction with Trump’s tariffs. According to the billionaire investor, President Trump’s actions are pushing the US to the brink of recession, or potentially “something worse.” He specifically pointed out the chaotic implementation of tariffs, which have caused global market volatility and economic uncertainty.
If Dalio is trying to say that the market is spooked, he is not wrong. According to the CBOE Volatility Index or VIX (which measures market sentiment), investors are very frightened. The index rose to the highest level in five years after the Liberation Day speech but climbed down afterward. Nevertheless, the index is still up 14% from where it was 30 days ago.
Amid the heightened fear in the equities market, Dalio’s Bridgewater continues to register gains. In Q1 2025 alone, the fund rose 9.9%. That the fund can post such growth in a difficult market speaks volumes about its management. This is why it is prudent to learn more about the billionaire’s stock picks with huge upside potential.
Our Methodology
We sifted through Bridgewater Associates SEC Q4 2024 13F filings. We focused on the fund’s most valuable equities holdings (excluding ETFs and options) and then ranked the stocks based on analyst price targets (as of May 2). We picked stocks with an upside potential of at least 30% and then ranked them in ascending order.
Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points (see more details here).
A close-up of a mobile device, showing an advertiser reaching out to a consumer via a software-based platform.
AppLovin Corporation (NASDAQ:APP)
Bridgewater Associates Stake Value: $159,602,854
Upside Potential as of May 2: 68.31%
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 95
AppLovin Corporation (NASDAQ:APP) is a marketing technology company. It operates through two segments: Advertising, which equips mobile app developers with tools to grow and monetize their apps, and Apps, which develops and publishes mobile games.
In Q4 2024, AppLovin Corporation (NASDAQ:APP) reported $1.37 billion in quarterly revenue, a 44% increase year-over-year. The Advertising segment accounted for the largest share of this growth—it grew by 73% to $999.5 million in the quarter. For the full year 2024, the company generated 43% more revenue ($4.71 billion) from the previous fiscal year. The profitability metrics were even more impressive: Q4 net income surged 248% to $599.2 million and adjusted EBITDA climbed 78% to $848 million.
Despite the robust financial posture, market sentiment towards AppLovin (NASDAQ:APP) has recently turned cautious. On April 30, 2025, the stock tumbled 16% following commentary from Edgewater Research. The research firm pointed to a slow deceleration in the mobile gaming sector and increasing competition from tech giants. However, the stock has since recovered (as of May 1) and regained the positive trajectory that started on April 21, 2025.
On April 23, 2025, HSBC analyst Mohammed Khallouf lowered the firm’s price target on AppLovin Corporation (NASDAQ:APP) from $547 to $436 while maintaining a Buy rating on the shares. The adjustment, noted the analyst, was part of a broader review of social media and AdTech companies.
Overall, APP ranks 1st on our list of Billionaire Ray Dalio’s Bridgewater’s stock picks with huge upside potential. While we acknowledge the potential of APP as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. There is an AI stock that went up since the beginning of 2025, while popular AI stocks lost around 25%. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than APP but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.
READ NEXT: 20 Best AI Stocks To Buy Now and 30 Best Stocks to Buy Now According to Billionaires.
Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
