The Trade Desk plunges on tepid outlook and CFO transition

The Trade Desk shares were trading as much as 39% lower on Friday after the ad tech company posted a narrow Q2 revenue beat and offered guidance for Q3 that likely disappointed investors.

Revenue came in at $694 million, slightly above the expected $685 million and up 19% year over year — though slower than the 25% growth in Q1. Adjusted earnings per share were in line with the consensus estimate at $0.41.

The Trade Desk runs a platform that helps advertisers buy digital ad space on websites, apps, and streaming TV in real time. Following strong numbers from digital ad peers like Google and Meta, some may have expected TTD to post similarly upbeat results. However, the company issued Q3 revenue guidance of at least $717 million, roughly matching analyst estimates but seemingly not enough to satisfy investors after a more than 50% rally in the shares over the past three months.

The company also announced that its longtime CFO, Laura Schenkein, will step down later this month, with board member Alex Kayyal set to take over the role.

It’s been a volatile year for TTD: it plunged 33% in February after posting weaker-than-expected guidance, then soared 19% after strong Q1 results in May. It got another lift in July after being added to the S&P 500, just weeks after we’d featured it on lists of the largest stocks not yet in the index. Thursday’s sharp reversal leaves the shares down nearly 50% year to date.