Pinterest Shares Surge 15% as Q1 Revenue Tops $1 Billion and Guidance Beats Estimates

Pinterest shares jumped 15% after the close of trading Monday following a first-quarter earnings report that beat analyst expectations on both revenue and profit, with the company also issuing second-quarter guidance that surpassed Wall Street projections.

The social media company reported first-quarter revenue of $1.01 billion, compared to the $966 million analysts had forecast, according to consensus estimates from LSEG. Adjusted earnings per share came in at 27 cents, topping the 23-cent estimate.

Sales rose 18% year over year in the quarter. The company posted a net loss of $73.59 million, or 12 cents per share — a swing from net income of $8.92 million, or 1 cent per share, in the same period a year earlier.

First-quarter adjusted EBITDA reached $207 million, well above analyst estimates of $176 million.

For the second quarter, Pinterest said it expects revenue between $1.13 billion and $1.15 billion, ahead of the $1.11 billion Wall Street had anticipated. The company projected second-quarter adjusted EBITDA of $256 million to $276 million, compared to the $261 million analysts were expecting.

Global monthly active users grew 11% year over year to 631 million, in line with estimates. First-quarter global average revenue per user came in at $1.61, above the $1.54 Wall Street had forecast.

The results mark a notable turnaround for the company, which had missed on earnings per share for five consecutive quarters prior to this report.

Pinterest paid approximately $465.1 million, primarily in cash, for its February acquisition of tvScientific, a connected TV advertising analytics firm. CEO Bill Ready told analysts the acquisition is intended "to extend Pinterest's unique consumer intent, signal and audiences beyond our owned and operated properties to power high-performing CTV campaigns."

Finance chief Julia Donnelly acknowledged that large retailers continued to weigh on growth amid the impact of President Donald Trump's tariffs on the online advertising market. However, she noted that artificial intelligence-driven platform improvements — including bidding optimizations for those advertisers — began to offset some of that pressure later in the quarter.

"Overall, large retailers remained a headwind to growth, but AI-driven platform improvements, including bidding optimizations we delivered for these advertisers, began to offset some of this headwind later in the quarter," Donnelly said.

Donnelly also said the company is "tracking the conflict in the Middle East," but has so far seen little impact to its overall advertising business. She noted some localized effects on the company's rest-of-world region and parts of Europe "where it's really isolated to certain verticals impacted by higher oil prices," adding that those dynamics were factored into the second-quarter guidance.

Pinterest announced in January that it would cut nearly 15% of its workforce and reduce office space as it redirects resources toward artificial intelligence initiatives.

The results come as other digital advertising platforms also reported strong first quarters. Meta and Alphabet both beat revenue estimates in their latest quarterly reports, while Reddit's first-quarter earnings beat sent its shares up 9% in after-hours trading.

Pinterest's beat and forward guidance signal that AI-driven advertising tools may be providing meaningful insulation against the macro headwinds facing the broader digital ad market, even as retailer spending and geopolitical uncertainty remain variables to watch heading into the second half of 2026.

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