The Trade Desk (TTD) Crushes Earnings Estimates and Offers Solid Guidance, Analysts Rise Numbers and PTs Following a 'Monster Quarter'
Shares of The Trade Desk (NASDAQ: TTD) are trading modestly lower in pre-open Friday despite stronger-than-expected fourth-quarter results and solid guidance from the digital ad company.
The company said made a profit of $3.71 per share (up 148% YoY) to smash analysts’ estimates of $1.88 per share. Revenue soared 48% to 320 million, again higher than the $292.4 million expected from analysts.
The adjusted EBITDA was reported at $152.9 million to top the $118.7 expected from the Street. As for the ongoing quarter, TTD’s midpoint guidance for revenue is $215.5 million vs estimates of $208.4 million. Furthermore, it is forecasting an adjusted EBITDA of $55 million.
“While 2020 was a uniquely challenging year, it was also a turning point for our industry and our company. We won more share in our fastest growing channels such as CTV and Audio, which helped drive record ad spend of $4.2 billion on our platform in 2020,” said Co-Founder and CEO of The Trade Desk, Jeff Green.
“Perhaps just as important, in 2020 we saw several years of advertising disruption and innovation compressed into a few months. Marketers are being more deliberate and data-driven in everything they do, and as a result, they are gravitating to the advertising opportunities of the open internet.”
Another dominant performance from TTD, Susquehanna’s Shyam Patil said in a note sent to clients today. He raised the price target to $1,000.00 per share from the old $925.00 on TTD, described as a “must-own multi-year growth story.”
“TTD reported another monster quarter with growth accelerating 16 points. CTV continues to lead the way, and we continue to believe this is just the beginning. Add to this, the new shopper marketing growth vector with a TAM of ~$200b, which is not even in estimates or the stock. We see TTD as a multi-year must-own story,” he said.
Stephens analyst Kyle Evans is less bullish on TTD than Patil as his new price target is $700.00 per share (up from $600.00). He rates the stock with an “Equal-weight” rating due to its high valuation.
“We believe TTD is the best publicly traded business in the advertising/marketing tech ecosystem and that 48% top line growth and impressive margin expansion (up 14% pts. YOY to 48%) on an uninfected YOY comp is a clear demonstration of the power of its model. We believe investor interest around tracking/ targeting changes (IDFA, Chrome cookies, etc.) will keep investor interest in UID 2.0 elevated for the rest of the year and that the open internet has a solid chance at emerging from this period of disruption/confusion much better off than it was before,” Evans wrote in a memo sent to clients today.
