New York, February 13, 2026, 12:51 p.m. ET — Regular session
- Pinterest shares sank roughly 18% to $15.19 in midday action, with the company projecting first-quarter revenue that missed expectations.
- The company pointed to reduced ad budgets from major U.S. retailers coping with tariff uncertainty.
- Pinterest’s latest AI-driven ad initiatives are getting a close look from investors, even as the company faces intensifying rivalry from larger platforms and the influx of fresh AI tools.
Pinterest (PINS.N) was hammered Friday, plunging roughly 18% to $15.19 around midday in New York. The selloff came after the company flagged a weaker first quarter, blaming tighter ad spending by major retailers.
Pinterest’s reliance on retail and consumer advertisers leaves it exposed—tariffs hit, budgets tighten, and spending can dry up in a hurry. Investors, meanwhile, are parsing how the rapid rollout of new AI tools could tilt ad spend and shopping searches toward the industry giants.
Pinterest faces a tricky situation here. It’s trying to shift to AI-powered ads—a move the company keeps promoting—but it doesn’t have the reach enjoyed by the largest advertising players.
“Pinterest is constrained by legacy monetization models amid a rapidly evolving AI landscape,” said Lenny Zephirin, CEO of market research firm Zephirin Group. The stock is trading at around 9.5 times projected earnings for the next year—well below Reddit’s multiple of about 30 and Meta’s 21, based on LSEG data. Bernstein analysts flagged the risk of “AI-powered Pinterest clones” from bigger tech players. After Pinterest’s outlook, no fewer than 24 brokerages slashed their price targets. 1
Pinterest late Thursday projected first-quarter revenue will land between $951 million and $971 million, trailing behind the $980.1 million mark analysts had expected, based on LSEG data. “Many of the largest retailers” facing tariffs have tightened advertising budgets, CFO Julia Donnelly told investors. The company is leaning harder on its AI-powered Performance+ ad suite and recently named Lee Brown, formerly at Spotify, as chief business officer. Claudine Cheever, who spent years at Amazon, joins as chief marketing officer. 2
Pinterest reported a 14% jump in fourth-quarter revenue to $1.32 billion, closing out 2025 with 619 million global monthly active users. Still, the company’s outlook indicates that rising user numbers aren’t feeding directly into stronger ad demand just yet.
Pinterest hit a session low of $13.87 before trimming losses. By midday, volume topped 41 million shares. If the drop holds, that’s more than $2 billion erased from a market cap hovering near $12.5 billion. 3
Pinterest is in the midst of overhauling sections of its sales team following last month’s layoffs, which trimmed less than 15% of staff—part of a bigger plan to channel resources into AI. Should Friday’s slide persist, it would be the second quarter in a row that shares sank more than 20% after earnings.
Advertisers are still funneling budgets toward bigger ecosystems for scale and targeting—think Meta, or TikTok’s U.S. arm—even as Reddit turns in relatively strong numbers fueled by its AI features. Pinterest maintains that its visual discovery and shopping ads set it apart, but investors have started questioning how long that advantage can hold.
Still, there’s a risk: retailers might tighten spending further, and AI-driven ad platforms from larger competitors could siphon off ad dollars before Pinterest has a chance to catch up. If weak guidance shows up again next quarter, analysts may trim their targets yet again, potentially trapping the stock near its lowest levels in years.
Investors are keeping a close eye on inflation numbers for any hints about future rate moves. The Labor Department reported a 0.2% uptick in the CPI for January, with the index up 2.4% year over year. The next batch of CPI data, covering February, is due out March 11 at 8:30 a.m. ET. 4
