Pinterest stock plunges following weak Q4 revenue guidance

Pinterest shares plunged as much as 15% on Thursday after the social media company provided soft guidance for its fourth-quarter revenue despite beating on the top and bottom lines with its third-quarter earnings. Here’s how the company performed, according to LSEG:

• Revenue: $898 million vs. $896 million expected
• Earnings per share: 40 cents adjusted vs. 34 cents expected

The company said fourth-quarter revenue will be between $1.125 billion and $1.145 billion. The midpoint of the fourth-quarter guidance, $1.135 billion, trailed analyst estimates of $1.143 billion. Pinterest CFO Julia Donnelly told analysts during an earnings call that ongoing weaknesses from food and beverage advertisers, which are part of the broader consumer packaged goods market, has negatively impacted the social media company’s overall sales. The slump by this sector will likely continue into the fourth quarter, she said. Pinterest also said in a filing Thursday that its board authorized a $2 billion share buyback. Sales in Pinterest’s third quarter rose 18% from $763.2 million a year ago. Pinterest said it had 537 million global monthly active users in the third quarter, topping analyst estimates of 532.6 million. The company’s net income grew a whopping 354% year over year to $30.56 million. Its total cost and expenses for the quarter were $904 million, up 17% compared with $768 million the previous year. Donnelly attributed Pinterest’s rising expenses to investments in research and development and hiring for employees with expertise in artificial intelligence. Pinterest’s latest quarterly earnings follows the recent U.S. presidential election earlier in the week in addition to multiple earnings reports from other tech companies with online advertising businesses. Last week, Amazon said its ads business grew 19% year over year to $14.3 billion in the third quarter, and Meta said its third-quarter sales rose 19% year over year to $40.59 billion. However, Meta shares dropped slightly on weaker-than-expected user numbers and warned of a significant acceleration in its infrastructure expenses in 2025. Alphabet said during its third-quarter earnings last week that advertising sales in the period grew 10% year over year to $65.85 billion while its YouTube video unit reported ad revenue of $8.92 billion, up 12% from the previous year. Microsoft said last week that its search and news advertising revenue jumped 18% year over year as part of its latest earnings report, but the company does not reveal that unit’s specific quarterly sales numbers. Reddit and Snap also reported their most recent quarterly earnings last week. Reddit said that sales in its third quarter soared 68% to $348.4 million from the prior year while Snap’s third-quarter revenue grew 15% year over year to $1.37 billion.