San Francisco, May 4, 2026, 13:58 PDT
Pinterest Inc. jumped 15.37% to $24.06 in post-market action Monday, according to market data, following a first-quarter revenue beat and an upbeat sales forecast for Q2. The stock ended regular trading at $20.85 on the NYSE before climbing in after-hours.
This guidance lands right at the heart of a key question for smaller digital ad players: are brands holding their budgets steady as AI shakes up how ads are made and delivered? Pinterest is still playing catch-up to Meta’s big platforms, Instagram and Facebook. Over at Reddit, executives last week highlighted a boost from their own AI-ad tools. Pinterest, though, gave a second-quarter revenue outlook that beat the $1.11 billion LSEG consensus.
Pinterest moved early on cost reductions. Back in January, the company announced a restructuring impacting fewer than 15% of employees and shrinking its office footprint, aiming to channel more investment into AI-driven jobs, new AI features, and an overhauled sales strategy.
Activist investors are in the mix here. Back in March, Elliott Associates and Elliott International lined up to purchase $1 billion in 1.75% convertible notes maturing 2031—these can be swapped for stock on certain terms. Pinterest, meanwhile, put a $3.5 billion share repurchase plan in place and kicked off a $1 billion accelerated buyback with Goldman Sachs.
Pinterest posted an 18% jump in first-quarter revenue, reaching $1.008 billion—or 15% higher if you strip out currency swings. Global monthly active users climbed 11% to 631 million. CEO Bill Ready described the period as a “strong start to 2026” and highlighted the company’s push toward an “AI-powered ads platform.” SEC
Under standard U.S. accounting, the company posted a loss for the quarter—$73.6 million, or 12 cents per share. After factoring out things like stock-option expenses and restructuring charges, adjusted earnings came in at 27 cents a share. That beats the 22-cent consensus from 11 analysts polled by Zacks Investment Research.
Pinterest is guiding for second-quarter revenue between $1.133 billion and $1.153 billion, which would mark 14% to 16% growth. The company also sees adjusted EBITDA landing in a $256 million to $276 million range. Keep in mind, adjusted EBITDA strips out interest, taxes, depreciation, amortization, and some other items—meaning it can look quite different from net income.
Even with a worldwide audience, the cash flow isn’t balanced. Pinterest’s average revenue per user landed at $7.12 in the U.S. and Canada; in Europe, that figure dropped to $1.17, and outside those regions, users brought in just 20 cents each.
Still, risks abound. Pinterest itself pointed to economic softness, inflation pressures, tariffs, foreign exchange volatility, stiffer competition, challenges with keeping advertisers, tightening privacy regulations, and uncertainties tied to both using and building AI—all of which could pull performance off its projected path.
Pinterest shares had tumbled 40% over the past six months, according to Sherwood News, with investors uneasy about tariff issues and chatbot competition. The latest report has shifted the focus—now everyone’s eyeing whether Pinterest’s AI-driven ad tools can actually translate more users into reliable revenue gains in the short run.
