Criteo (NASDAQ:CRTO) Announces Earnings Results, Misses Estimates By $0.14 EPS

Key Points

• Criteo reported quarterly EPS of $0.43, missing the $0.57 consensus estimate by $0.14; revenue fell 16.7% year over year.
• Q3 Contribution ex-TAC declined 15% at constant currency to $240 million, and full-year 2026 guidance remains for a 10%–12% decline at constant currency.
• Some areas showed growth: social media spend and campaigns rose about 20% year over year, while adjusted EBITDA reached $65 million, above plan; Criteo ended September with $275 million in cash and no long-term debt.

Criteo (NASDAQ:CRTO - Get Free Report) posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday. The information services provider reported $0.43 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.57 by ($0.14), Briefing.com reports. Criteo had a net margin of 5.60% and a return on equity of 14.33%. The business's revenue for the quarter was down 16.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.31 earnings per share.

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

• Criteo’s Q3 Contribution ex-TAC fell 15% at constant currency to $240 million. Performance media remained pressured by lower spending from several large enterprise clients, while retail media results included $20 million of previously disclosed client scope reductions.
• Full-year guidance is unchanged, with 2026 Contribution ex-TAC expected to decline 10%–12% at constant currency; Q4 is expected to be down 9%–11%. Management said it is taking a cautious approach and has not included an immediate benefit from sales initiatives in its 2026 outlook.
• Criteo reported growing traction in newer channels: CTV campaigns are expanding, with the company on track to double its Q3 CTV run rate in Q4, while social media spend and campaigns each grew about 20% year over year. New-business spend rose 13% in Q3, and management expects recently signed clients to begin ramping in Q4 and reach full run rate in the first half of 2027.
• Excluding the previously announced client scope reductions, retail media Contribution ex-TAC grew 10% across the underlying client base, with media spend up 22%. Adjusted EBITDA of $65 million exceeded plan, and the company ended September with $275 million in cash and no long-term debt.

Criteo Stock Up 3.1%

Shares of Criteo stock traded up $0.47 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $15.64. The company's stock had a trading volume of 494,649 shares, compared to its average volume of 420,897. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $16.05 and a 200-day moving average price of $18.05. Criteo has a 12-month low of $13.95 and a 12-month high of $25.29. The company has a market capitalization of $766.36 million, a P/E ratio of 7.94 and a beta of 0.35.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently commented on CRTO. Huber Research cut shares of Criteo from an "overweight" rating to an "underweight" rating in a research note on Monday, August 24th. Sanford C. Bernstein downgraded shares of Criteo from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating and lowered their target price for the company from $35.00 to $20.50 in a report on Thursday, August 6th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on shares of Criteo from $16.00 to $15.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, October 27th. Citigroup reissued a "buy" rating on shares of Criteo in a report on Friday, August 14th. Finally, Wedbush cut their price target on shares of Criteo from $30.00 to $25.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 20th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $22.35.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Criteo news, CFO Sarah Glickman sold 6,285 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $17.23, for a total transaction of $108,290.55. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 424,612 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,316,064.76. The trade was a 1.46% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, insider Ryan Damon sold 6,178 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $17.23, for a total transaction of $106,446.94. Following the sale, the insider owned 167,765 shares in the company, valued at $2,890,590.95. The trade was a 3.55% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 30,877 shares of company stock worth $531,717. 1.52% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Criteo Company Profile

Criteo SA NASDAQ: CRTO is a global commerce media and advertising technology company headquartered in Paris, France. The company helps brands, retailers and other businesses use commerce data and artificial intelligence to reach consumers, build customer relationships and measure advertising performance across digital channels.

Criteo's offerings include retail media solutions, which enable retailers and marketplace operators to provide sponsored product listings and other advertising placements, as well as performance media tools for campaigns across websites, mobile applications and the open internet.

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