Stock Market Today, Feb. 26: The Trade Desk Falls After Weak Revenue Guidance and Margin Pressure
The Trade Desk (NASDAQ:TTD), a self-service cloud ad-buying platform, closed Thursday at $23.95, down 4.81%. The stock fell as the market reacted to softer-than-expected fiscal Q1 revenue guidance, margin pressure, and a wave of price-target cuts. Investors are watching whether growth and profitability can reaccelerate. Trading volume reached 52.5 million shares, about 264% above its three-month average of 14.4 million shares. The Trade Desk IPO'd in 2016 and has grown 696% since going public.
How the markets moved today
S&P 500 slipped 0.53% to finish Thursday’s session at 6,909, while the Nasdaq Composite declined 1.18% to close at 22,878. In advertising technology, industry peers PubMatic closed at $7.07, up 7.45%, and Magnite ended at $13.48, gaining 12.61%, underscoring diverging sentiment across the group.
What this means for investors
After its stock opened down 16% this morning following yesterday’s earnings, The Trade Desk rallied back to close down 5% today as the market digested its new financials. Trade Desk’s 14% sales growth and flat adjusted net income figures beat analysts’ expectations, but its Q1 guidance of 10% sales growth disappointed the market. Worse yet, management expects adjusted EBITDA to dip by 6%, which might signal weakening pricing power.
While Trade Desk remains a core holding for me -- and I may buy a little more in March while shares trade near their lowest-ever valuation -- it has a lot to prove with its AI-powered Kokai offering, and needs to show that its days of double-digit sales growth aren’t ending.
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Josh Kohn-Lindquist has positions in The Trade Desk. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends PubMatic and The Trade Desk. The Motley Fool recommends Magnite. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
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