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Written by Josh Kohn-Lindquist for The Motley Fool->
The Trade Desk (NASDAQ:TTD), which provides a self-service, cloud-based ad-buying platform, closed Friday at $23.06, down 1.83%. The stock is sliding after a mixed Q1 2026 report and a wave of analyst downgrades. Investors are watching margin trends and revenue guidance. Trading volume reached 41.1 million shares, about 103% above its three-month average of 20.2 million shares. The Trade Desk IPO'd in 2016 and has grown 666% since going public.
The S&P 500 rose 0.82% to 7,397, while the Nasdaq Composite gained 1.71% to finish at 26,247. Among advertising agency peers, PubMatic closed at $10.74, up 4.88%, and Magnite finished at $14.13, rising 0.93% as investors weighed ad-tech earnings and product updates.
The Trade Desk’s Q1 earnings were quite underwhelming. While its 12% sales growth snuck past analysts’ expectations, it came up shy on adjusted EPS. The biggest issue with The Trade Desk’s report was its weak guidance for just 8% sales growth in Q2, as it expects $750 million in revenue, versus Wall Street’s consensus of $770 million.
While management continues to point to a complex macroeconomic environment and geopolitical tensions as the main headwinds for TTD, that isn’t soothing for shareholders who have seen the company’s revenue growth decelerate for five straight quarters. Currently trading at just 11 times forward earnings, TTD may be attractively valued, but I have no intention of adding to my full position until the company shows signs of a turnaround.
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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.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
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