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The Trade Desk Q3 earnings
Jeff Green, The Trade Desk’s CEO (Greg Doherty/Getty Images)

The Trade Desk falls despite decent Q3 results

The ad tech platform has had a brutal 2025.

Matt Phillips

Ad tech platform The Trade Desk reported better-than-expected Q3 results after the close on Thursday, though its stock price dropped in the after-hours session.

The advertising software company reported.

  • Adjusted Q3 earnings per share of $0.45 vs. the $0.44 consensus estimate, per FactSet.

  • Q3 revenue of $739 million vs. the $719.1 million expectation.

  • Q4 sales guidance of at least $840 million vs. Wall Street’s $830.4 million view.

The Trade Desk specializes in helping client advertisers shift their ads from traditional linear television toward online streaming services. But its shares have come under pressure this year, as it faces a daunting competitive threat from Amazon’s demand-side advertising platform.

Amazon’s service can draw on the retail behemoth’s massive pool of consumer data, a selling point that The Trade Desk has tried to counter with an emphasis on its independence, concentration on the “open web,” and its own exclusive third-party data relationships. Still, competition against Amazon is tough.

Analysts at TD Cowen estimate that The Trade Desk already has about 43% of the US open web — that is, non-social media or Google-based — advertising market, a large presence that “may constrain future growth potential, especially as competition from Amazon intensifies,” they wrote in a recent note.

The stock was down more than 60% for the year through the end of trading on Thursday.

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SpaceX gets a wave of bullish ratings from Wall Street analysts

SpaceX received more than a dozen positive analyst calls on Tuesday — including from major Wall Street banks — as they initiate coverage on Elon Musk’s space and AI company.

SpaceX went public on June 12 at a $2.2 trillion valuation, the largest debut in history. While the company hasn’t yet posted a profit, it seems to have convinced Wall Street that it will get there and grow its valuation on the way.

Of the at least 17 analysts that gave a rating on Tuesday, all but one gave it a “buy” or “outperform” rating. MoffettNathanson was "neutral."

The ratings come as SpaceX joined the Nasdaq 100 index, a benchmark tech-heavy basket of companies that underpins millions of portfolios. The inclusion adds built-in demand for the stock from index funds and ETFs.

Still, SpaceX fell more than 5% on Tuesday amid a broader sell-off, and is currently effectively flat from its opening price of $150 a share.

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Nike sinks to lowest level since 2014 after warning of “challenged” sales environment in Q4 report

Did Nike do it?

Investors had a mixed reaction after the global sports apparel company reported its fourth quarter earnings on Tuesday after the bell. Shares initially rose 5% as Nike beat out Wall Street expectations amid a hefty tariff refund bonus. However, the stock then sank to its lowest level since August 2014 in postmarket trading.

Here are the Q4 numbers:

  • Revenue of $11.0 billion (estimate: $10.8 billion).

  • Adjusted earnings per share of $0.20 (estimate: $0.12).

Ahead of this report, Nike warned that results would be flattered by a one-time tariff refund (now estimated at roughly $0.52 per share for the bottom line). That gave the company an extra cushion in snapping its streak of seven quarters of year-over-year profit declines.

Over the past year, the company had been punished by tariffs on imported goods, stagnant consumer spending, and increasing competition from other footwear brands like New Balance, Adidas, and Hoka.

Outgoing CFO Matthew Friend deemed it an “increasingly challenging operating environment, where sell-through remains challenged.”

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