Trustpilot Group Plc (LSE: TRST), the online reviews platform, has just lived through one of the wildest 48 hours in its listed life. A scathing short-seller report from Grizzly Research knocked more than a quarter off the share price in a single session, accusing the business of “mafia‑style” tactics – only for big-name banks to double down with fresh Buy ratings and hefty upside targets the very next day. [1]
On 5 December 2025, Trustpilot’s share price is attempting a fragile rebound, while investors try to decide whether this is a broken story… or a suddenly discounted growth stock with a lot of noise attached.
Where Trustpilot’s Share Price Stands on 5 December 2025
Live pricing data from Investing.com shows Trustpilot trading around 142.95 pence, up about 10% intraday, with a day’s range of roughly 138p–143p and a 52‑week range of 126.5p to 361.5p. [2]
That bounce comes after a violent sell‑off on Thursday 4 December:
- The stock closed the previous day near 189.7p. [3]
- Following Grizzly’s report, shares fell more than 30% intraday, hitting a low around 130p and a near two‑year low of 131.2p. [4]
- They later clawed back some ground to finish Thursday afternoon around 145p, still down about 23–24% on the day and the worst performer in the FTSE 250. [5]
Even after today’s bounce, Trustpilot trades roughly a quarter below where it sat before the short‑seller attack, and more than 60% below its 52‑week high near 360p. [6]
What Triggered the Crash? Grizzly Research’s “Mafia‑Style Extortion” Allegations
The catalyst was a detailed short report from Grizzly Research, which disclosed a short position in Trustpilot and accused the company of running what it calls a “mafia‑style extortion” model against non‑paying businesses. [7]
Across Grizzly’s own report and coverage from Reuters, the Financial Times, Alliance News and others, the key allegations are: [8]
- Unsolicited profiles & “hyper‑negative” reviews
Grizzly claims Trustpilot creates business profiles without consent, which then attract a wave of very negative reviews. The report argues this puts pressure on companies to sign up as paying customers to “manage” their ratings. - Pay‑to‑improve dynamics
The short seller alleges that paying subscribers see their scores “magically” improve from below 2 stars to above 4 stars, suggesting systematic bias in favour of customers who buy subscriptions. - Fake positives & dubious merchants
According to the report, some high‑scoring paying clients appear to be low‑quality or even scam‑like businesses, implying Trustpilot is either failing to police fake positive reviews or is willfully looking the other way. - Ecosystem of fake‑review vendors
Grizzly points to third‑party outfits openly selling Trustpilot reviews, claiming that the volume of manipulated content undermines the entire platform.
The Financial Times notes that the rout in Trustpilot’s shares – a 31% plunge in a day – ranks among the steepest reactions to any Grizzly campaign. The paper also reports that Grizzly stands to gain more than £1m from the move, about 0.6% of Trustpilot’s market cap at the time. [9]
In other words, this is classic activist‑short theatre: highly provocative claims, a very real share-price reaction, and a large dose of “he said / she said” for investors to sift through.
Trustpilot’s Response: “Selective, Misleading and Lacking Context”
Trustpilot wasted no time hitting back. In a formal RNS and subsequent Alliance News coverage, the company “rejected” Grizzly’s report, calling it: [10]
“a series of claims that are selective, misleading and framed to support a predetermined narrative… [which] omits key context and publicly available facts, creating a false impression.”
Trustpilot stresses that:
- Trust and integrity are “central to everything we do”, and
- The report shows “a lack of understanding” of how the platform works. [11]
More broadly, the company regularly states that it:
- Uses automated and human moderation to remove fraudulent or policy‑breaking reviews.
- Publishes transparency reports on how many reviews it removes.
Independent analysis by SafePaper, which examined the reliability of reviews on Trustpilot earlier this year, offers a nuanced picture: Trustpilot says it removed about 7.4% of reviews in 2024 for fraud or rule violations, yet SafePaper also found that misleading and AI‑generated content can still slip through – a problem that applies to essentially every large reviews platform. [12]
So investors are now stuck in the uncomfortable but familiar spot of weighing a high‑incentive short seller against a self‑defending platform in an area – online reviews – where everyone agrees there is some level of fraud, but not on how much or how controllable it is.
The Buyback Machine Kept Running Through the Sell‑Off
One very tangible signal from the board: the share buyback did not pause for this drama.
Trustpilot launched a £30m share buyback programme as part of its H1 2025 results in September. [13] Since then, the company has been steadily buying and cancelling stock:
- On 2 December 2025, it repurchased 425,000 shares at a volume‑weighted average price (VWAP) of 189.59p, for about £18.3m cumulative buyback spending since mid‑September. [14]
- On 4 December 2025, the very day of the Grizzly sell‑off, Trustpilot bought another 700,000 shares, with trades ranging from 126.8p to 184.6p and a VWAP of 151.96p. [15]
As of 5 December, the company has cancelled over 10.3 million shares for a total cost of roughly £20.1m (excluding fees). [16]
BofA Securities, which initiated coverage in November, explicitly sees buybacks as a core part of the equity story, projecting US$220m in share repurchases by 2030 alongside strong free cash flow and rising returns on invested capital. [17]
Continuing to buy into a falling market sends a clear message: management believes the intrinsic value is materially above the current price and is willing to prove it with cash.
Under the Hood: Growth, Margins and the AI “TrustLayer” Strategy
Strip away the controversy and the underlying numbers actually look quite robust.
For the six months to 30 June 2025, Trustpilot reported: [18]
- Revenue: $123m, up 23% year‑on‑year
- Bookings: $140m, up 19% (17% at constant currency)
- Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR): $273m
- Adjusted EBITDA: $18m, up about 70% versus the prior year
Those figures imply a mid‑teens adjusted EBITDA margin, and the company raised its medium‑term margin targets in September, telling investors that greater scale and automation – particularly AI‑led tooling – should steadily improve profitability. Bloomberg summarised the September update as “Trustpilot upgrades margin target as AI becomes key to strategy,” highlighting both the uplifted profitability ambitions and the buyback launch. [19]
A big piece of that AI strategy is TrustLayer™, launched at the HumanX conference in March 2025:
- TrustLayer is pitched as a “trust intelligence layer” that feeds real customer sentiment into AI‑driven decisions across search, commerce, procurement, risk management and investment workflows. [20]
- Trustpilot says it now hosts over 300 million reviews, with about 200,000 more added daily, giving TrustLayer a substantial data moat. [21]
In other words, the bull case is that Trustpilot is evolving from “just a reviews website” into a data and analytics platform that monetises trust signals across the broader AI economy.
Fresh Analyst Calls: Morgan Stanley Upgrade and BofA’s Buy
Despite the chaos, the analyst community is not heading for the exits. In fact, 5 December 2025 brings a major upgrade.
Morgan Stanley: Upgrade to Overweight, 275p Target
This morning, Morgan Stanley upgraded Trustpilot from Equalweight to Overweight, with a price target of £2.75 (275p) – almost double the current share price. [22]
The detailed reasoning is behind a paywall, but the act of upgrading one day after a short‑seller attack is a fairly loud statement that Morgan Stanley sees the sell‑off as overdone relative to fundamentals.
BofA Securities: New Buy With ROIC Focus
On 21 November 2025, BofA Securities initiated coverage with a Buy rating and 230p target price. Their thesis: [23]
- Trustpilot is a “high‑quality SaaS business”
- They expect 2025 ROIC around 27% and rising
- Free cash flow conversion is projected at ~100%
- They model US$220m in buybacks by 2030, supporting total shareholder returns of roughly 33% from their base case
BofA also flags upside risk to growth, particularly from North America, and expects operating leverage to push margins higher each year.
Consensus Targets: Triple‑Digit Upside from Here
Consensus data from several platforms underline just how far sentiment and price have diverged:
- Investing.com shows an overall “Buy” consensus from 12 analysts (9 Buy, 2 Hold, 1 Sell), with an average 12‑month price target of 309.53p – implying about 116% upside from roughly 143p. [24]
- MarketBeat tracks a smaller sample (4 analysts) and labels the stock a “Moderate Buy”, with an average target of 340.75p (range 200p–420p), implying ~164% upside from 129.2p, its quoted price during Thursday’s slump. [25]
- DirectorsTalk aggregates broker data and finds an average target around 309.7p versus a recent price of 129.2p, equating to around 140% potential upside, with nine Buy, two Hold and one Sell ratings. [26]
- For the OTC‑listed U.S. line (TRTPF), Fintel’s survey of analysts points to an average target of $3.47, again more than doubling the current U.S. price. [27]
There’s plenty of dispersion between the lowest and highest targets, but the common thread is clear: Street models still sit miles above today’s share price.
Valuation Check: Cheap Opportunity or Value Trap?
Not everyone is in full‑throttle cheerleader mode. Equity‑research platform Simply Wall St, writing before the Grizzly report, highlighted that: [28]
- Trustpilot’s price‑to‑sales ratio is around 3x, not dramatically different from peer online platforms.
- Revenue has grown about 22% year‑on‑year, and roughly 64% over three years, with analysts still expecting ~18% growth next year, versus about 7.5% for the wider industry.
- Yet the stock had already fallen more than 50% over 12 months, suggesting the market was discounting the sustainability of that growth and/or pricing in execution risk.
DirectorsTalk’s stock analysis adds further colour: despite solid free cash flow of around $31m and rising ROE (~2.5%), Trustpilot still prints negative EPS (-0.90) and screens on an absurd‑looking forward P/E above 2,000x because most of its economic value is still being ploughed back into growth rather than showing up in near‑term earnings. [29]
Combine that with the new short‑seller overhang and you get the current optics:
- Fundamental metrics that look like a growth story
- Headline controversies that look like a trust problem
- A share price that is now discounting a lot of pain – but maybe not enough if the allegations gain traction.
Governance, Major Shareholders and Transparency
Away from the drama, Trustpilot has also been in the news for more routine market plumbing.
On 4 December, Kalkine Media highlighted a major holdings notification in which JPMorgan Asset Management Holdings Inc. disclosed updated voting rights in Trustpilot under UK regulatory rules. The piece notes that the filing separates direct share‑based voting rights from exposure via financial instruments like equity swaps, and emphasises how such disclosures enhance transparency around institutional ownership for UK‑listed stocks. [30]
The fact that large global asset managers remain involved – and are having to file these threshold‑crossing notifications – is a reminder that Trustpilot still sits firmly in the mainstream institutional universe, not on the fringes of speculative micro‑caps.
Key Risks Investors Are Now Forced to Weigh
After this week, anyone looking at Trustpilot stock has to confront a few big questions:
- Platform integrity & regulatory risk
If regulators, consumer‑protection agencies or large enterprise customers conclude that fake or manipulated reviews are widespread, the business model could face legal, reputational and commercial damage. At present, Grizzly’s claims are allegations, not findings of fact – but they directly attack Trustpilot’s core asset: credibility. [31] - Reliance on Google and visibility algorithms
Grizzly’s report emphasises how Trustpilot’s prominence in Google search results amplifies both its benefits and its risks. Any change in Google’s treatment of third‑party review sites would materially affect traffic and value, positively or negatively. [32] - Short‑seller overhang and volatility
Once a stock is “in play” for activist shorts, volatility tends to persist. Even if fundamentals hold up, news‑driven swings and further reports, rebuttals or legal actions could keep risk‑tolerant traders busy and risk‑averse holders uncomfortable. - Execution on AI / TrustLayer strategy
Turning trust data into a scalable AI‑driven analytics product is conceptually powerful – but it demands flawless execution and clear proof that customers will pay more for it. The September margin‑upgrade story only works if that strategy translates into sustainable high‑margin revenue. [33] - Dependence on buybacks for shareholder return
Heavy use of buybacks makes sense for a cash‑generative, under‑levered SaaS business, but it also means capital allocation discipline is crucial. Buying back shares aggressively before a big drawdown (as Trustpilot did in November at ~185p) is less attractive in hindsight than buying at today’s depressed levels. [34]
Upcoming Catalysts: January and March 2026 in Focus
The next hard data points are already in the diary, per Trustpilot’s investor relations calendar and its H1 2025 results RNS: [35]
- 15 January 2026 – Trading Update
This will be the first official commentary on trading since the short‑seller report and the controversy over review quality. Any disclosure on churn, customer additions, or changes in enterprise behaviour will be parsed line by line. - 17 March 2026 – Full‑Year 2025 Results
Here, investors will look for confirmation that high‑teens revenue growth and improving margins are intact, as well as any updates on the external auditor review of metrics, further buyback authorisations, and progress for TrustLayer.
Between those dates, markets will be watching for:
- Any regulatory developments tied to online reviews.
- Legal responses from Trustpilot or affected businesses to Grizzly’s allegations.
- Further analyst revisions to targets and ratings as the dust settles. [36]
Bottom Line: A Stock Now Trading on Trust, Literally
On 5 December 2025, Trustpilot’s share price is no longer just a bet on SaaS multiples and ARR growth; it is explicitly a bet on whether its trust machine can be trusted.
- The bear case says: the platform’s economics are rooted in problematic incentives, the brand is at risk, and the short‑seller is simply pulling back the curtain.
- The bull case says: the sell‑off is a sharp overreaction to unproven allegations, while the underlying business keeps compounding revenue, improving margins, buying back stock and rolling out high‑value AI products.
Either way, the next few months – starting with the January trading update – will do far more to resolve the debate than any number of heated PDFs.
References
1. www.reuters.com, 2. www.investing.com, 3. www.marketbeat.com, 4. www.reuters.com, 5. www.marketbeat.com, 6. www.investing.com, 7. www.reuters.com, 8. www.reuters.com, 9. www.ft.com, 10. www.marketscreener.com, 11. www.sharesmagazine.co.uk, 12. www.techloy.com, 13. www.directorstalkinterviews.com, 14. www.investegate.co.uk, 15. www.investegate.co.uk, 16. www.investegate.co.uk, 17. uk.investing.com, 18. www.directorstalkinterviews.com, 19. www.bloomberg.com, 20. corporate.trustpilot.com, 21. www.humanx.co, 22. www.streetinsider.com, 23. uk.investing.com, 24. www.investing.com, 25. www.marketbeat.com, 26. www.directorstalkinterviews.com, 27. fintel.io, 28. simplywall.st, 29. www.directorstalkinterviews.com, 30. kalkinemedia.com, 31. www.ft.com, 32. grizzlyreports.com, 33. www.bloomberg.com, 34. www.investegate.co.uk, 35. corporate.trustpilot.com, 36. www.investing.com
