Reddit RDDT Stock Rockets 200% in 2025 After AI Ad Boom, TikTok Sell-Off and Analyst Upgrades
30 October 2025
7 mins read

Reddit Stock Rockets: AI Deals, Earnings Beat and What’s Next for RDDT

  • Stock Price (Oct 30, 2025): ~$199 per share, down about –5.7% intraday on Oct 30, after trading in a range near $210. RDDT spiked to a 52-week high of $282.81 in mid-September [1] [2]. It is roughly +90% higher than a year ago [3].
  • Recent Performance: Over the past week RDDT was up ~3.3%, but it is down ~14% in the last month [4], reflecting post-rally profit-taking. Year-to-date the stock is up about +34% (versus +28% for Meta and –26.5% for Snap) [5].
  • Q2 2025 Results: In late July, Reddit reported blowout Q2 results: Revenue $500M (+78% YoY); Net income $89M (EPS $0.45) [6]. Daily active users hit 110.4M (+21% YoY). Gross margin was ~90.8% [7]. Management’s guidance for Q3 was $535–545M revenue and $185–195M adjusted EBITDA [8].
  • Q3 Earnings: Reddit will release Q3 FY2025 results after market close on Oct 30. Analysts expect revenue of roughly $539M (up ~56% YoY) and EPS ~$0.52 [9] [10].
  • Platform Updates: Reddit is expanding its AI-driven features. In late 2024 it launched “Reddit Answers”, an AI-powered search/chat tool to surface community Q&A, improving on its legacy search [11]. Management says it plans to roll AI features (like real-time summaries) across languages to boost engagement [12] [13].
  • Partnerships & Data Deals: The company has secured content licensing deals with Google and OpenAI, reportedly $60M per year combined [14]. This “other” revenue line contributed about $35M in Q2 (roughly 7% of revenue) [15]. CEO Steve Huffman says Reddit is “essential to AI and to search” and they are negotiating dynamic pricing for data access [16].
  • Legal Battles: In Oct 2025, Reddit sued Perplexity AI and other data-scraping firms in federal court, alleging they “bypassed digital guardrails” to steal Reddit’s content via Google search [17]. The complaint colorfully likens the defendants to “would-be bank robbers… break[ing] into the armored truck carrying the cash[18].
  • Analyst Ratings & Targets: Wall Street is broadly bullish. Of ~28 analysts, the consensus is a Moderate Buy (mean rating ~2.1/5) [19]. Price targets range widely – median ~$230 [20] (median target $230), with optimistic calls up to $300 [21]. For example, Citigroup and Raymond James set $250 targets (Oct ’25), Truist $260, Piper Sandler $290, JMP $300 [22]. A trading-site aggregate shows a high estimate $303 and low $110 [23].
  • Valuation/Peers: Reddit’s P/S and P/E are lofty: forward P/E ~86x (versus ~~25x Meta and ~~30x Snap) [24]. TradingView notes RDDT’s forward Price/Sales (~24×) far exceeds peers [25]. The stock trades at a premium to tech peers: it’s up much more than Meta (+28% YTD) or Snap (–26% YTD) [26], reflecting a high-growth narrative.

Reddit’s IPO-era honeymoon has carried into late 2025. Investors are buzzing over its boom in ad sales and AI partnerships, yet cautious about its lofty valuation. Below, we break down the key drivers and risks behind RDDT’s ride.

Stock Performance and Recent Moves

On Oct 30, 2025, Reddit (NYSE: RDDT) was trading around $199 [27]. This marked a pullback from the mid-September peak near $282.95 [28]. Over the last month the stock is down ~14% [29], even as it remains up ~90% from year-ago levels. Investors note the volatility: ts2.tech reports a 600%+ surge since IPO, but with swings driven by profit-taking after September’s rally [30]. One analysis noted a sharp drop in early October: RDDT fell roughly 10% to ~$206 on Oct 1 amid general tech weakness [31]. But longer-term momentum is still solid – analysts say institutional owners (60% of float) have been buying in Q2 [32].

Trading data shows yesterday’s dip wasn’t entirely technical: volume was light on Sep 30, and some investors speculated the stock was “peaked” after a summer binge [33] [34]. Still, the broader trend is that strong earnings and positive news have kept RDDT well ahead of most tech peers. Year-to-date, Reddit is up ~34% vs. Meta +28% and Snap –26% [35]. By contrast, the S&P 500 climbed ~18% over the same period, underscoring Reddit’s growth story. (Twitter’s successor, X, is now private under Musk, so no public comparison there.)

Q2 Earnings & Guidance

Reddit’s latest financials have been outstanding. In Q2 2025 (reported July 31), revenue hit $500 million, up 78% year-over-year, easily beating expectations [36]. Net income was $89M (18% margin) with diluted EPS $0.45 [37] – a huge turnaround from prior losses. CEO Steve Huffman hailed the quarter, saying “our most profitable quarter yet”, and noting that “brands want to work with us” after demonstrating value for advertisers on live demos [38]. COO Jen Wong echoed that momentum: “the second quarter demonstrated continued growth and strong execution,” with revenue up 78% [39]. She added that Reddit’s “unique proposition and ad platform improvements” are driving “differentiated growth” for advertisers [40].

Underlying user metrics are also strong. Daily active users hit 110.4 million in Q2 (up 21% YoY) [41]. Users outside the U.S. and mobile usage are climbing, thanks partly to new features and marketing. Importantly, advertising demand has surged: ad revenues in Q2 grew even faster (84% YoY) [42]. The vast, engaged Reddit communities are fetching higher ad rates (ARPU grew 47% in Q2 to $4.53) [43] [44].

Looking ahead, management guided Q3 revenue to $535–545M [45], implying ~55% growth. This tops current Wall Street consensus (around $550M) and surprised some market watchers. Analysts say this outlook is fueled by continued ad momentum and the rollout of AI-driven ad products. As Investing.com notes, Hugo expects “strong revenue growth” in 2025, with international expansion and personalized products as priorities [46]. With the Q3 report due today (Oct 30), investors will watch if Reddit meets its bullish guidance or if there’s a moderation in growth.

AI Initiatives and Partnerships

A major storyline is Reddit’s AI and data strategy. The company has aggressively monetized its unique community content. In 2025 it struck licensing deals with tech giants – reportedly about $60M per year combined with Google and OpenAI [47] – enabling those companies to use Reddit data to train AI models. Management highlights these deals as a new revenue stream: Q2 “other revenue” (mainly data licensing) was $35M [48]. Huffman has proclaimed Reddit “essential to AI and to search,” pointing to how the platform’s real-person conversations help train next-gen algorithms [49]. Those deals, plus rising ad spend, were cited by analysts in last year’s stock jump. (A Reuters report noted “content licensing deals” as a key boost, though eMarketer’s Jeremy Goldman cautioned these are “training wheels” – a near-term bonus, but not a permanent growth crutch [50].)

Reddit is also infusing AI into the user experience. Late in 2024 it launched “Reddit Answers”, an AI chat interface that delivers quick summaries of relevant community threads to user queries [51]. Emarketer analyst Paola Flores-Marquez called the move “fascinating,” noting it plays to Reddit’s strength as a Google-search staple of unique content [52] [53]. The goal is to modernize search on Reddit, making it easier for newcomers to find high-quality answers. Management sees this as part of a “once-in-a-generation opportunity” for Reddit to capture people seeking real perspectives in an AI-saturated world [54]. Steve Huffman quipped, “You can’t have artificial intelligence without actual intelligence,” underscoring Reddit’s pitch that authentic human conversation complements AI rather than competes with it [55]. The company plans to expand these tools across regions and languages in 2025.

Legal and Industry Headwinds

Amid the growth, Reddit faces challenges. A high-profile controversy: Reddit filed a lawsuit in Oct 2025 against AI search firm Perplexity and others (Oxylabs, SerpApi, etc). The complaint alleges the defendants “circumvented” Reddit’s protections by scraping content via Google Search, then selling that data to train AI models [56]. Reddit framed the accused companies as digital criminals: “These Defendants are similar to would-be bank robbers… who, knowing they cannot get into the bank vault, break into the armored truck carrying the cash instead,” the suit claims [57]. This legal battle underscores concerns about data rights and could reshape how AI companies source content. It has also been cited as a risk factor for Reddit (data privacy, scraping). Observers say such lawsuits may be as much about pressuring the AI industry on licensing as about monetary damages.

Another potential headwind is user growth and valuation. Some skeptics point out that after rapid early growth, metrics may normalize. A consumer marketing blog (cited by ts2.tech) warned that eventual slowdown in user growth would force Reddit to extract more ad dollars per user to maintain momentum [58]. Reddit’s valuation is already steep: its forward P/E (~86x) and P/S (~24x) dwarf long-time peers like Meta (which trades around 25x earnings) [59] [60]. As ts2.tech observes, the stock’s premium hinges on continued execution. For now, Reddit remains mostly immune to negative sentiment – short interest is modest and hedge funds seem to have added positions in Q2 (Baillie Gifford +764%, Tiger +89%) [61] [62]. But investors will be watching closely whether Reddit can justify those lofty multiples.

Analyst Outlook and Comparisons

The consensus among analysts is optimistic but mixed on near-term risks. According to MarketBeat/Wall Street consensus cited by ts2.tech, RDDT is rated a “moderate buy” (14 buy / 11 hold / 2 strong buy) with an average 12-month target of about $201 [63], implying the current price is near fair value on average. However, as QuiverQuant data shows, many Wall Street analysts have much higher targets now that Q2 beat. For example, Citigroup and Raymond James recently set $250 targets [64], Truist $260, Piper $290, and JMP $300 [65] – reflecting confidence in Reddit’s ad traction. By contrast, one outlier at Wells Fargo gave a $174 target. This wide range (low $110–300+) mirrors the high uncertainty. (Indeed, an Investing.com summary noted the Q2 call had analysts asking about the sustainability of growth given such volatility [66].)

Comparing peers, Reddit’s growth is eye-catching. Its ad revenues grew faster than those of Facebook/Meta or Pinterest recently, and it now has more active advertisers (50%+ YoY increase across all segments [67]). Meta’s stock has been strong in 2025 (Q3 sales up ~15%, stock +28% YTD), but Reddit’s rally has been much sharper. Snap’s business remains smaller, and its stock has lagged. Even normalized for market cap, many see Reddit as a higher-growth story. Yet Reddit is still smaller – its market cap (~$39.9B [68]) is a fraction of Meta’s. If Reddit sustains 50%-70% growth, bulls argue it could eventually justify a Meta-like valuation. A Simply Wall St. model (via ts2.tech) even projects Reddit reaching $3.8B revenue and $1B earnings by 2028 [69]. Critics counter that any hiccup (e.g. a tougher ad market or search algorithm change) could disappoint the current consensus.

In short, RDDT sits at the intersection of some of tech’s biggest trends. It blends social media/community content with emerging AI data monetization. The stock’s near-term outlook hinges on the Q3 earnings and upcoming guidance – due out today – and on whether Reddit can keep converting user engagement into dollars. As of now, analysts give it more room: ts2.tech notes “most analysts still rate RDDT a Buy overall” despite recent swings [70]. The company’s messaging on AI and human engagement (“human conversation is becoming more important” as Huffman says [71]) remains compelling to the market. But given RDDT’s premium, the coming months should reveal whether Reddit’s rocket is still fueled by fundamentals or if it needs new catalysts to keep soaring.

Sources: Official filings and earnings calls [72] [73]; Reuters and Business Insider news [74] [75] [76]; industry analyses (ts2.tech, Emarketer, QuiverQuant) [77] [78] [79]. (All data as of Oct 30, 2025.)

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References

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