Criteo (NASDAQ:CRTO) Posts Earnings Results, Beats Estimates By $0.16 EPS

Key Points

• Criteo reported Q1 EPS of $0.73, beating estimates by $0.16, but revenue was $424.6M (down 5.3% YoY) and management pushed return-to-growth to Q4 with a significantly softer Q2 guide.
• The company is pushing into agentic AI, becoming OpenAI's first ad-tech partner with over 1,000 brands live and reporting early AI-platform traffic converts ~1.5x, while rolling out the self-service Criteo GO to expand SMB reach.
• Shares plunged about 21.4% to $15.81 on heavy volume after the results, reflecting investor concern despite the earnings beat.

Criteo (NASDAQ:CRTO - Get Free Report) issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday. The information services provider reported $0.73 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.57 by $0.16, FiscalAI reports. Criteo had a net margin of 7.52% and a return on equity of 17.15%. The company had revenue of $424.64 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $248.21 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.10 EPS. The firm's revenue was down 5.3% compared to the same quarter last year.

Here are the key takeaways from Criteo's conference call:

• Criteo is pushing into agentic AI1,000 brands live; early traction shows AI-platform traffic converts ~1.5x and could open a new high-intent discovery channel and incremental budgets.
• Q1 revenue was $425M and Contribution ex-TAC $250M (media spend topped $1 billion), but Contribution ex-TAC was down 9% FX-adjusted (down low-single-digits guide for 2026) and the company pushed its return-to-growth to Q4, with Q2 guide significantly softer.
• Retail media showed strong underlying performance—Contribution ex-TAC up 24% excluding two client scope cuts—but a €75M headwind from those scope reductions is weighing on near-term results even as the business gains auction-based display adoption and renewals.
• The newly launched Criteo GO self-service platform (two-thirds of small-client U.S. campaigns now on Go) plus cross-channel and discovery capabilities aim to expand SMB addressable market and increase spend per client over time.

Criteo Trading Down 21.4%

Shares of Criteo stock traded down $4.31 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $15.81. 1,175,480 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 470,468. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $18.43 and its 200 day simple moving average is $19.55. The firm has a market cap of $788.19 million, a P/E ratio of 5.97 and a beta of 0.34. Criteo has a 52-week low of $15.57 and a 52-week high of $30.64.

Insider Transactions at Criteo

In other Criteo news, Director Der Kooi Frederik Van bought 5,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, March 13th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $17.81 per share, for a total transaction of $89,050.00. Following the acquisition, the director directly owned 26,600 shares in the company, valued at approximately $473,746. The trade was a 23.15% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 1.66% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Jones Financial Companies Lllp raised its stake in shares of Criteo by 1,376.7% during the 1st quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 1,270 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $45,000 after acquiring an additional 1,184 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake in Criteo by 7.2% in the 2nd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 16,313 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $391,000 after purchasing an additional 1,094 shares in the last quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd increased its stake in Criteo by 145.0% during the 2nd quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd now owns 432,881 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $10,372,000 after purchasing an additional 256,227 shares in the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company raised its holdings in shares of Criteo by 41.6% in the second quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 8,587 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $206,000 after buying an additional 2,524 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Alliancebernstein L.P. lifted its stake in shares of Criteo by 1.9% during the second quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 4,411,988 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $105,711,000 after buying an additional 82,134 shares during the period. 94.27% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently commented on CRTO shares. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a "sell (d+)" rating on shares of Criteo in a research note on Monday, April 20th. DA Davidson set a $28.50 price objective on Criteo in a research report on Thursday, February 12th. Sanford C. Bernstein set a $43.00 target price on Criteo in a research report on Thursday, February 12th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Criteo from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Saturday, March 7th. Finally, Morgan Stanley set a $33.00 price target on shares of Criteo in a research note on Thursday, February 12th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $30.72.

About Criteo

Criteo is a global technology company specializing in digital performance advertising and commerce media solutions. The company provides a range of AI-driven ad products designed to help brands, retailers, and agencies deliver personalized promotional messages to consumers across web, mobile, and connected TV environments. By leveraging large-scale data analytics and machine learning algorithms, Criteo's platform optimizes the timing, placement, and creative of ads to drive engagement and conversions.

At the core of Criteo's offering is its dynamic retargeting solution, which enables advertisers to automatically generate and display personalized product recommendations based on user behavior.

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