The Trade Desk Q4 Revenue Beats Estimates, Shares Drop 17%
Written by Emily J. Thompson, Senior Investment Analyst
Updated: 1 hour ago
0mins
Should l Buy TTD?
Source: stocktwits
- Revenue Growth: The Trade Desk reported Q4 revenue of $847 million, a 14% increase from $741 million year-over-year, exceeding analysts' expectations of $841 million, indicating strong performance in the advertising market.
- Stable Customer Retention: The company maintained a customer retention rate of over 95% for the past year, consistent for twelve consecutive years, reflecting its success in customer relationship management.
- Weak Guidance: Despite a strong Q4, the company forecasted first-quarter 2026 revenue of at least $678 million, falling short of analysts' estimates of $689.5 million, leading to a 17% drop in shares during after-hours trading.
- Share Buyback Program: The board approved an additional $350 million under its share repurchase program, bringing the total available for future repurchases to $500 million, aimed at enhancing shareholder value and boosting market confidence.
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Analyst Views on TTD
Wall Street analysts forecast TTD stock price to rise
28 Analyst Rating
15 Buy
12 Hold
1 Sell
Moderate Buy
Current: 24.940
Low
38.00
Averages
53.33
High
85.00
Current: 24.940
Low
38.00
Averages
53.33
High
85.00
About TTD
The Trade Desk, Inc. is a global advertising technology company. The Company offers a self-service, cloud-based ad-buying platform that empowers its clients to plan, manage, optimize and measure more expressive data-driven digital advertising campaigns. Its platform allows clients to execute integrated campaigns across ad formats and channels, including connected television (CTV) and other video, display, audio, and native, on a multitude of devices, such as televisions, streaming devices, mobile devices, computers and digital-out-of-home devices. Its platform’s integrations with inventory, publisher and data partners provide ad buyers reach and decisioning capabilities, and its enterprise application programming interfaces (APIs) enable its clients to customize and expand platform functionality. Its platform provides auto-optimization features that allow buyers to automate their campaigns and support them with computer-generated modeling and decision-making.
About the author

Emily J. Thompson
Emily J. Thompson, a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) with 12 years in investment research, graduated with honors from the Wharton School. Specializing in industrial and technology stocks, she provides in-depth analysis for Intellectia’s earnings and market brief reports.
- Strong Earnings Report: The Trade Desk reported fourth-quarter revenue of $847 million, a 14% year-over-year increase that surpassed Wall Street's expectation of $841 million, indicating robust performance in the adtech sector.
- Declining Profitability: While net income rose to $187 million, the net income margin fell from 25% to 22% year-over-year, reflecting margin compression pressures that could undermine investor confidence moving forward.
- Cautious 2026 Outlook: The company guided for at least $678 million in revenue and approximately $195 million in adjusted EBITDA for Q1 2026, implying lower margins and slower growth, which adds uncertainty to market expectations.
- Ongoing Stock Buybacks: The Trade Desk repurchased $1.4 billion in stock in 2025; however, persistent stock-based compensation costs and margin pressures continue to negatively impact the stock price.
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- Revenue Growth: The Trade Desk reported Q4 revenue of $847 million, a 14% increase from $741 million year-over-year, exceeding analysts' expectations of $841 million, indicating strong performance in the advertising market.
- Stable Customer Retention: The company maintained a customer retention rate of over 95% for the past year, consistent for twelve consecutive years, reflecting its success in customer relationship management.
- Weak Guidance: Despite a strong Q4, the company forecasted first-quarter 2026 revenue of at least $678 million, falling short of analysts' estimates of $689.5 million, leading to a 17% drop in shares during after-hours trading.
- Share Buyback Program: The board approved an additional $350 million under its share repurchase program, bringing the total available for future repurchases to $500 million, aimed at enhancing shareholder value and boosting market confidence.
See More
- Nvidia Earnings Beat: Nvidia reported adjusted earnings of $1.62 per share for the fourth quarter, exceeding analysts' expectations of $1.53, leading to a more than 1% increase in after-hours trading.
- Snowflake Revenue Guidance: Snowflake projected first-quarter product revenue between $1.262 billion and $1.267 billion, slightly above the FactSet consensus of $1.26 billion, but shares fell over 2%.
- Trade Desk Misses Expectations: Trade Desk forecasted first-quarter adjusted EBITDA of approximately $195 million, significantly below the $223 million expected by analysts, resulting in a 16% drop in shares.
- Nutanix and AMD Partnership: Nutanix announced a multi-year partnership with AMD to develop an AI infrastructure platform, with AMD investing $150 million in Nutanix, leading to a 17% surge in its stock price.
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- Strong Earnings Report: The Trade Desk reported earnings of $0.59 per share, surpassing the consensus estimate of $0.58, indicating sustained profitability and boosting investor confidence.
- Sales Growth: Quarterly sales reached $846.79 million, exceeding Wall Street's expectation of $840.46 million and representing a 14.25% increase from $741.01 million in the same period last year, reflecting robust performance in the advertising market.
- Stable Customer Retention: The Trade Desk maintained a customer retention rate of over 95% throughout the year, showcasing success in customer relationship management and service quality, further solidifying its market position.
- Future Outlook: Although the first-quarter revenue is expected to exceed $678 million, it falls short of the analyst estimate of $689.48 million, indicating challenges amid macroeconomic uncertainty that may impact short-term stock performance.
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- Earnings Beat: Trade Desk reported a Q4 non-GAAP EPS of $0.59, beating expectations by $0.01, indicating the company's ongoing profitability in the advertising technology sector.
- Significant Revenue Growth: The company achieved Q4 revenue of $847 million, a 14.3% year-over-year increase, surpassing analyst expectations by $6.32 million, reflecting strong demand for its advertising platform and an increase in market share.
- Stable Customer Retention: Trade Desk maintained a customer retention rate of over 95% throughout the year, consistent for twelve consecutive years, demonstrating sustained customer satisfaction and brand loyalty.
- Optimistic Outlook: The company forecasts Q1 2026 revenue of at least $678 million, although below the $688.37 million consensus, with an adjusted EBITDA of approximately $195 million, indicating potential for future profitability.
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- Trade Desk Options Volume: Trade Desk Inc saw options trading volume of 73,596 contracts, equating to approximately 7.4 million shares, which represents about 47.4% of its average daily trading volume over the past month, indicating strong market interest in its future performance.
- High Strike Call Options: Notably, the $24 strike call option expiring on February 27, 2026, has seen 5,980 contracts traded today, representing around 598,000 underlying shares of TTD, suggesting bullish sentiment among investors regarding its stock price.
- Fiserv Options Activity: Concurrently, Fiserv Inc's options trading volume reached 46,286 contracts, translating to approximately 4.6 million shares, which is about 46.9% of its average daily trading volume over the past month, reflecting active trading in its stock.
- Bullish Call Options: Particularly, the $59.50 strike call option expiring on February 27, 2026, has recorded 14,526 contracts traded today, representing approximately 1.5 million underlying shares of FISV, indicating investor confidence in its future growth prospects.
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