Trade Desk Growth Slows to 3% After Two Faster Quarters

The Tip Desk · August 6, 2026 · 3 min read

Second-quarter revenue was $715 million, up 3% from a year earlier, and the company guided third-quarter sales of at least $650 million.

The Trade Desk (TTD), a provider of a global technology platform for buyers of advertising, reported second-quarter revenue of $715 million, up 3% from a year earlier, a sharp slowdown from 12% growth in the first quarter and 14% in the fourth quarter of 2025.

Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Jeff Green said the quarter “did not meet the standard we set for ourselves,” adding that the company is taking action to strengthen execution, upgrade the platform and sharpen its focus on areas where it can create the greatest value.

Revenue still rose sequentially to $715 million from $689 million in the first quarter. GAAP net income was $64 million, or $0.14 a share, compared with $90 million, or $0.18 a share, a year earlier. The net income margin was 9%.

Adjusted EBITDA was $241 million, with a 34% margin, down from $271 million and a 39% margin a year earlier. Non-GAAP net income was $158 million, or $0.34 a share.

Income from operations was $101.6 million. Total operating expenses were $613.5 million. Platform operations expense was $184.3 million, sales and marketing $174.4 million, technology and development $140.7 million, and general and administrative $114.0 million. Stock-based compensation expense was $109.6 million, down from $128.9 million a year earlier, with no long-term CEO performance grant in the 2026 quarter versus $19 million in the 2025 quarter.

Customer retention remained over 95% during the second quarter, as it has for over a decade. Marketers are navigating a complex environment, and that complexity increases the value of decisioning, measurement and AI.

Partnership announcements included Dentsu naming The Trade Desk the first DSP partner for its new end-to-end retail data offering from New Stream Media. Commerce media integrations expanded with Booking.com, Agoda, Kayak, Priceline, Marriott, Uber and United Airlines. Databricks named The Trade Desk a launch partner for CustomerLake, and Adobe forged an integration connecting paid media exposure data to first-party profiles in Adobe Real-Time CDP. Netflix joined the Sellers and Publishers 500+, and Samsung Ads opened premium home-screen inventory to programmatic buyers, with The Trade Desk among the first platforms granted access.

The company appointed Nate Olmstead as Chief Financial Officer, Sarah Gavin as Chief Marketing Officer and EVP, Kristi Argyilan as Chief Commercial Officer and EVP, Ron Lamprecht as Chief Business Development Officer and SVP, and Vinny Rinaldi as Vice President of Client Strategy & Growth. Penry Price and David Haddad joined the board.

The company used approximately $78 million of cash to repurchase Class A common stock in the second quarter, leaving $269 million available and authorized for repurchases. Cash and cash equivalents were $1.12 billion at June 30, 2026.

For the third quarter of 2026, The Trade Desk guided revenue of at least $650 million and Adjusted EBITDA of approximately $160 million. The company has not provided an outlook for GAAP net income. Green said he is confident the company’s actions will help marketers drive better business outcomes and support the shift of media budgets toward the open internet.