Reddit Stock (RDDT) After-Hours: Shares Dip on Dec. 23, 2025 Despite Needham’s $300 Target — What to Know Before the Market Opens Dec. 24

Reddit, Inc. (NYSE: RDDT) finished Tuesday’s regular session (Dec. 23, 2025) lower, then steadied slightly in after-hours trading as investors weighed a bullish Wall Street call against a risk-on broader tape and fresh insider-filing headlines.

RDDT closed at $225.82, down 3.14% on the day, and was last indicated around $226.75 in after-hours trading (a modest rebound of about 0.41% from the close). ^[1]

The immediate wrinkle: the dip came the same day Needham named Reddit a “top pick” for 2026 and reiterated a Buy rating with a $300 price target—one of the more widely circulated Reddit-stock headlines of the day. ^[2]

After the bell: the numbers traders are watching tonight

Here’s the quick, actionable tape-read after Tuesday’s close:

Close (regular session): $225.82 (‑3.14%) ^[3]
After-hours: about $226.75 (+0.41% vs. close, as of the evening update) ^[4]
After-hours volume (snapshot): ~18.7K shares (thin liquidity typical for post-market trading) ^[5]
Intraday range (regular session): roughly the mid‑$225s to the upper‑$230s ^[6]

In plain English: the stock sold off during the day, then bounced a bit after hours, but the move after the bell has been relatively small compared with the day’s decline—suggesting investors largely digested today’s news during regular trading.

Why Reddit stock moved today: a bullish analyst call, but the stock still fell

Needham: Reddit added as a top 2026 pick, keeps $300 target

The most prominent Reddit-specific catalyst today was Needham’s note placing Reddit on its “conviction” list and calling it a leading pick for 2026. In coverage of the note, Needham analyst Laura Martin highlighted Reddit’s positioning with advertisers—high-intent audiences in focused communities, with comparatively low “ad clutter”—and emphasized the strategic value of Reddit’s content for AI. ^[7]

Needham’s forward-looking forecasts cited in today’s reporting were also attention-grabbing:

2026 revenue forecast: about $2.95B
2026 adjusted EBITDA forecast: about $1.7B ^[8]

Needham also pointed to AI licensing as a meaningful (and potentially expanding) revenue stream—describing annual licensing revenue from major AI players as more than $100 million and suggesting it could grow, especially if legal disputes over AI data usage break in Reddit’s favor. ^[9]

So why did the stock drop anyway?

There wasn’t a single, definitive “bad headline” tied to Reddit’s fundamentals today in the way you’d see on an earnings day. Instead, Tuesday’s action looked like a combination of:

Profit-taking / positioning into a holiday-shortened week (a common driver in high-beta names), and
Thin holiday liquidity, which can exaggerate normal intraday swings. ^[10]

That interpretation fits the broader market backdrop: U.S. stocks climbed again and trading volume was reported as light ahead of the Christmas holiday. ^[11]

Today’s key fundamental read-through: ARPU strength vs. valuation risk

A separate, widely shared Dec. 23 analysis from Zacks (published on Nasdaq.com) leaned into what many investors consider Reddit’s core bull case: monetization.

Zacks highlighted that Reddit’s average revenue per user (ARPU) rose 41% year-over-year to $5.04 in Q3 2025, and said advertising momentum remains central to the story—pointing to ad revenue up 74% year-over-year to $549 million and an active advertiser count up more than 75% year over year (with growth across large, mid-market, and SMB advertisers). ^[12]

Zacks also stressed expanding engagement and international execution, citing:

116 million daily active users and 444 million weekly active users (around 20% YoY growth), and
machine translation support expanding to 30 languages, supporting localization efforts in markets such as India, Brazil, Germany, and France. ^[13]

But the same analysis also put a bright spotlight on a common bear argument: valuation. Zacks described RDDT as overvalued, citing a forward price-to-sales multiple well above its broader sector benchmark and assigning a low “Value Score.” ^[14]

That “great business, expensive stock” tension is still at the center of Reddit’s daily trading narrative.

A second headline traders noticed late today: the COO’s new Form 4 filing

Another development that hit the wires today—and tends to show up in after-hours recaps—was an insider transaction disclosure.

A Form 4 filing accepted on Dec. 23, 2025 (period of report: Dec. 19, 2025) shows Reddit Chief Operating Officer Jennifer L. Wong:

Exercised stock options for 39,167 shares, and
Sold shares in multiple lots at prices spanning the low‑$230s to the high‑$230s on Dec. 19. ^[15]

The filing also notes the sales were made under a Rule 10b5‑1 trading plan that was adopted on May 16, 2025—a detail that matters because 10b5‑1 plans are typically scheduled in advance and are not necessarily a real-time signal of insider sentiment about near-term fundamentals. ^[16]

Still, in a momentum stock, any insider-sale headline can influence the tape—especially in a low-liquidity holiday week.

Where Wall Street’s Reddit stock forecast stands heading into tomorrow

If you’re trying to map today’s headlines into “what the Street thinks now,” it helps to separate the views into two layers: the headline call (Needham’s $300 target) and the consensus (what the broader analyst community is modeling).

Consensus rating and targets

MarketBeat data indicates a “Moderate Buy” consensus and suggests only modest upside versus current levels based on its compiled 12‑month forecasts. ^[17]

Other consensus aggregators show higher average targets (and wide dispersion between high and low estimates), which is typical for a fast-growing, still-controversial IPO-era name. For example, Investing.com shows an average price target around the mid‑$240s with a notably broad range. ^[18]

The takeaway for tomorrow morning: today’s Needham note strengthened the bullish camp, but the broader Street picture still reflects a debate about how much growth is already priced in.

Short interest: a volatility accelerant

Needham’s supporters point out that Reddit has attracted a relatively high short base for a major consumer internet platform—reported in today’s coverage as over 14% short interest. ^[19]

MarketBeat’s latest reported snapshot (as of Nov. 28, 2025) puts short interest around 15.16% of the public float. ^[20]

Why it matters: high short interest can amplify moves in both directions—especially when liquidity is thin and headlines (like upgrades, downgrades, or insider filings) hit during extended hours.

Next earnings date: the next “hard catalyst” is still weeks away

Reddit hasn’t confirmed its next earnings date in all calendars, but multiple market calendars estimate Feb. 11, 2026 as the next report window based on historical timing. ^[21]

Between now and then, most day-to-day movement is likely to be driven by:

digital advertising sentiment,
AI/content licensing narrative shifts,
user growth chatter, and
broader risk appetite for high-multiple tech.

What to know before the market opens tomorrow, Dec. 24, 2025

Tomorrow is not a “normal” session—and that matters for RDDT.

1) Christmas Eve is a shortened trading day

The NYSE and Nasdaq will close early at 1:00 p.m. ET on Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2025 (with options closing slightly later for eligible products). ^[22]

Bond markets also observe an early close (commonly 2:00 p.m. ET). ^[23]

Practical implications for Reddit stock tomorrow:

Expect lighter volume and potentially choppier price action.
Big price swings can happen on relatively small order flow.
Stops and limit orders matter more than usual.

2) A key economic headline hits before the bell: jobless claims

Market calendars list Initial Jobless Claims at 8:30 a.m. ET on Wednesday, Dec. 24 (moved due to the Christmas holiday week). ^[24]

For a growth stock like Reddit, macro data can move futures and rate expectations, which can ripple into high-multiple names at the open—even if there’s no Reddit-specific news.

3) Context: the broader market has been “risk-on,” but signals are mixed

Tuesday’s macro backdrop was supportive for equities overall, with strong GDP data helping keep the “rate cuts next year” narrative alive—though consumer confidence weakened. ^[25]

If futures wobble overnight, RDDT can react more sharply than slow-moving value stocks because it trades more like a “story + growth” name.

The premarket checklist for Reddit (RDDT) tomorrow morning

If you’re scanning headlines before the open, here are the most relevant things to watch—based on what broke today:

Does the Needham note keep traction?
Watch whether other firms echo the conviction-list upgrade, or whether the market treats it as “already priced in.” ^[26]
Any follow-on commentary about AI licensing or advertising demand
Today’s bullish framing leaned heavily on AI licensing value and ad-buyer efficiency. ^[27]
Any additional insider filings
Today’s Form 4 is real and clearly documented. If more Form 4s hit in a thin session, they can sway sentiment quickly. ^[28]
Liquidity conditions
With the early close, volume often dries up as the day goes on—meaning the “real move” (up or down) can happen early.

Bottom line after the bell

Reddit stock ends Dec. 23 with a split-screen narrative: the tape was down, but the fundamental “why own it” case got fresh bullish reinforcement today—especially around advertising monetization and the strategic value of Reddit’s human-generated content in an AI-driven internet. ^[29]

Heading into Wednesday, Dec. 24, the biggest “before the open” factors are less about a scheduled Reddit event and more about holiday trading mechanics (early close, thin liquidity) and macro headlines (jobless claims) that can sway high-beta tech at the open. ^[30]

This article is for informational purposes only and is not investment advice.