Markets
Reddit Begins Trading On New York Stock Exchange
Reddit CEO Steve Huffman (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
/todayIlearned

Reddit’s slowing user growth tests Wall Street’s sky-high expectations

The social media platform pointed a finger in Google’s direction for its underwhelming eyeballs.

Kelly Cloonan

Reddit’s tenure as an IPO and social media darling received a startling downvote on Wednesday after the site reported disappointing user growth last quarter, sending shares on a 16% downward spiral in after-hours trading.

The site’s daily active users, a key growth metric for the company, rose 39% to 101.7 million in the fourth quarter, missing Wall Street estimates of 103.8 million. Reddit pointed to a change in Google’s search algorithm during the quarter, which made for “some volatility” that has since subsided, the company said.

Reddit had previously benefited from deals with Alphabet’s Google and OpenAI that put its pages higher in search and ChatGPT results, bringing in new users. The tough part, though, has been getting those logged-out users — who typically spend less time on the site, thus carrying less ad revenue — to actually make an account. The majority of Reddit’s daily active users aren’t logged in, making up 55% of those that visited the platform daily in Q4.

The site’s slowing user growth now brings its strikingly steady rise into question. Unlike a host of other platforms that have rapidly skyrocketed in popularity only to fall just as quickly, losing users’ interest just years if not weeks later, Reddit has seen gradual growth since coming online two decades ago.

The platform beat on revenue, however, reporting quarterly sales of $427.7 million, up 71% from a year prior and above estimates of $405.5 million according to analysts polled by Bloomberg. Adjusted earnings per share of $0.85 also handedly exceeded forecasts for $0.48.

Part of that growth comes from its booming ad business, which rose 60% on the year to $394.5 million in the fourth quarter, coming in above estimates of $367.3 million. Its “other” revenue, which includes its comparatively small but growing AI licensing business, missed estimates to total $33.2 million, making up about 8% of the company’s total revenue for the quarter.

Looking forward, the company said it expects revenue to range from $360 million to $370 million for the current quarter, above analyst expectations of $359 million.


Kelly Cloonan is a journalist who has written for Business Insider and Fast Company.

More Markets

See all Markets
markets
Luke Kawa

Opendoor surges on bullish options bets as traders look to potential real estate tokenization

Opendoor Technologies is surging on Friday amid bullish options bets and social media posts referencing unconfirmed rumors about the company.

The stock moved higher in the premarket session after the soft inflation report boosted stocks and briefly pushed long-term bond yields lower (positive for a real estate company). But the real gains came after the opening bell rang and options demand picked up.

As of 12:11 p.m. ET, roughly 664,000 call options have changed hands versus a 10-day average of about 364,000 for a full session.

What seems to be galvanizing members of the “$OPEN Army” is the potential for the company to pursue the tokenization of real-world assets, with Robinhood often bandied about as a potential partner in this endeavor.

(Robinhood Markets Inc. is the parent company of Sherwood Media, an independently operated media company subject to certain legal and regulatory restrictions.)

Opendoor bulls have often pointed to signs that Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev appears to be fond of the company, from what appeared on-screen during a demo of a social trading feature at HOOD’s conference in Las Vegas in September to offering support to Opendoor CEO Kaz Nejatian in setting up an opportunity for retail shareholders to ask questions during the online real estate company’s next earnings call.

Opendoor is currently in a quiet period ahead of earnings, which restricts what type of announcements a company can make.

The call options seeing the most demand expire this Friday with strike prices of $8, $8.50, and $9.

Intel Earnings Researchers

Wall Street analysts see some issues with Intel’s earnings

Even with the US government as a partial owner, Intel’s turnaround has a long way to go.

markets
Luke Kawa

Beyond Meat gains amid slightly better-than-expected Q3 sales, positive commentary on legal issues

Shares of Beyond Meat built on their premarket gains after the plant-based meat seller reported preliminary Q3 sales a bit ahead of Wall Street’s expectations, before paring this advance after the market opened.

For the three months ended September 27, management said net revenue would be approximately $70 million. That’s in line with their guidance range of $68 million to $73 million, but Wall Street was expecting sales to skew toward the lower end of that range, at $68.7 million.

However, its anticipated gross margin of 10% to 11% is lower than analysts had been expecting (13.8%). That’s still the case even adjusting for expenses related to its downsizing of operations in China, which would have left margins around 12% to 13%, per Beyond.

Perhaps more importantly, the company provided positive commentary regarding arbitration discussions with a former co-manufacturer that appear to bring it closer to a resolution while limiting potential damages:

“As previously disclosed, in March 2024, a former co-manufacturer brought an action against the Company in a confidential arbitration proceeding claiming that the Company inappropriately terminated its agreement with the co-manufacturer and claimed damages of at least $73.0 million. On September 15, 2025, the arbitrator issued an interim award (the ‘Interim Award’) and found that the Company had a valid basis to terminate the agreement with the Manufacturer. The details of the Interim Award are confidential, and a final arbitration award has not been issued. Additional proceedings will be held to determine the award of attorneys’ fees, prejudgment interest and costs, if any, before a final arbitration award will be issued. On September 25, 2025, the Manufacturer filed a request with the arbitrator to re-open the arbitration hearing. On September 29, 2025, the Company opposed this request. On October 20, 2025, the arbitrator denied the Manufacturer’s request.”

Latest Stories

Sherwood Media, LLC produces fresh and unique perspectives on topical financial news and is a fully owned subsidiary of Robinhood Markets, Inc., and any views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of any other Robinhood affiliate, including Robinhood Markets, Inc., Robinhood Financial LLC, Robinhood Securities, LLC, Robinhood Crypto, LLC, or Robinhood Money, LLC.