NEW YORK, May 1, 2026, 12:02 EDT
Zeta Global Holdings Corp. shares climbed late Friday morning in New York after the marketing-tech company boosted its 2026 revenue and free-cash-flow targets and posted a 50% surge in first-quarter sales. The stock was last seen at $19.17, up 75 cents. Zeta also raised its full-year revenue midpoint to $1.785 billion, a $30 million increase.
The report comes at a time when investors are demanding more than flashy AI demos from software firms—they want to see real usage and top-line growth. Zeta said its Athena by Zeta AI marketing agent delivered over seven times as many agent interactions and made up more than 60% of AI platform activity during its launch week.
KeyBanc’s Jack Nichols and his team bumped up Zeta before earnings, saying the company might just be entering the “early innings of a multi-pronged inflection”—with Athena possibly speeding things up, according to Investing.com. That set the stage for usage metrics to serve as an early check on the stock’s AI pitch. Investing.com
Zeta’s first-quarter revenue came in at $396.3 million, well ahead of the $370.4 million consensus, TheFly reported. The company now expects second-quarter revenue between $419 million and $422 million, topping the $415.5 million consensus from TipRanks. For the full year, Zeta is guiding for $1.779 billion to $1.792 billion, again beating the $1.76 billion consensus.
Adjusted EBITDA jumped to $66.1 million, up from $46.7 million in the same period a year ago. Free cash flow also picked up, reaching $41.7 million compared to $28.2 million previously.
“Athena removes the barrier to enterprise-wide adoption,” Chief Executive David A. Steinberg said. Chief Financial Officer Chris Greiner pointed to the company’s 19th consecutive beat-and-raise quarter as evidence of “sustained demand” in an environment shifting toward platforms with proven results at scale. SEC
Zeta highlighted gains among its biggest clients: “super-scaled” customers—those bringing in at least $1 million over the past year—climbed to 189, up from 159 this time last year. Average revenue per super-scaled customer also grew, up 21% to $1.7 million. SEC
The Marigold deal remains a key factor this quarter. Zeta’s supplemental deck put first-quarter revenue, stripped of Marigold and political contributions, at $341 million—up 29%. Marigold itself kicked in $55.6 million during the period, and the company is guiding for roughly $198 million from Marigold in 2026.
Analysts leaned positive following the results. Needham’s Scott Berg stuck with his Buy rating and $25 target, highlighting the quarter, standout performance from Marigold, and progress with Athena. William Blair’s Arjun Bhatia also reiterated Buy, noting a pickup in organic growth and more widespread customer adoption.
Competition remains fierce. In its Q1 2026 analysis of email marketing service providers, Forrester stacked Zeta up against names like Adobe, Braze, Salesforce, plus eight more. Zeta, for its part, said it nabbed the top strategy score among all vendors Forrester reviewed.
Still, tough issues remain for the company. Zeta reported a GAAP net loss of $13.2 million for the quarter, sticking to standard accounting conventions. Stock-based compensation shot up to $53.0 million. In its own release, Zeta cautioned that its guidance comes with no guarantees, flagging a list of risks: everything from macroeconomic uncertainties and AI trends to data-collection restrictions and questions around keeping clients.
There’s a margin wrinkle here too. Nichols pointed out that about a third of Zeta’s revenue flows through outside channels—things like social media—where gross margins tend to be thinner and free-cash-flow growth could hit a ceiling. So the real question becomes whether Athena can drive more usage without sending operating costs up.
