Earnings: Trade Desk Q1 profit tops estimate as revenues grow 41%

The Trade Desk (Nasdaq: TTD), a leading digital advertising marketplace, Thursday reported higher earnings and revenues for the first quarter of 2019, which also exceeded Wall Street’s estimates. The company also revised up the guidance for fiscal 2019.

The Ventura, California-based company reported adjusted profit of $23.1 million or $0.49 per share for the March quarter, compared to $15.3 million or $0.34 per share last year. Reported earnings edged up to $0.21 per share from $0.20 per share in the first quarter of 2018.

The bottom-line growth was driven by a 41% increase in revenues to $121 million.  The results came in above analysts’ forecast. During the quarter, adjusted EBITDA rose to $24.7 million, the highest ever recorded for any first quarter.

“We continued to add new advertisers and agencies to our platform and existing customers increased their spend. In Q1, we continued to develop closer relationships with the biggest brands in the world,” said  Jeff Green, CEO of Trade Desk.

During the quarter, adjusted EBITDA rose to $24.7 million, the highest ever recorded for any first quarter

The Mobile channel continued to perform well and represented about 45% of gross spend. Mobile Video spend and Mobile In-app spend grew 60% each during the quarter. There was a three-fold increase in Connected TV spend and Audio spend.

As part of its efforts to expand market share, Trade Desk made major invests in technology, infrastructure and product development in the early months of the year. Continuing the trend seen for more than two decades, the company maintained a customer retention rate of more than 95%.

Also see: Alphabet’s stock plunge due to Q1 earnings miss

For the second quarter, the management expects revenues of $154 million and adjusted EBITDA of $46 million. The revenue estimate for the whole of 2019 is $645 million, up from the previous guidance of $637 million. The outlook for full-year adjusted EBITDA has been revised up to $188.5 million from the earlier prediction of $182 million.

Trade Desk shares hit an all-time high earlier this month, and their value nearly doubled since the beginning of the year. The stock traded lower in Thursday’s premarket session after closing the previous session higher.

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