NEW YORK, May 21, 2026, 18:08 EDT
Perion Network Ltd. shares extended their post-earnings slide on Thursday, last quoted down about 1.9% at $8.84, as investors looked past fast growth in the advertising technology company’s AI products and focused on a revenue miss and weaker profit. The Nasdaq-listed stock had fallen 16% to $9.01 on Wednesday after the company posted a wider first-quarter loss and missed revenue expectations, MarketWatch reported.
The pressure on PERI matters because Perion is trying to show that Perion One, its newer advertising platform, and Outmax, its AI agent that helps run and optimize campaigns, can offset slower legacy web and search businesses. That shift is beginning to show in customer spending, but the first-quarter numbers gave investors little clean proof that growth is flowing through to profit.
Perion said first-quarter revenue rose 1% from a year earlier to $90.4 million. Contribution ex-TAC, a non-GAAP measure that excludes traffic-acquisition costs, or money paid to bring in ad traffic and media supply, was flat at $39.7 million, while adjusted EBITDA — earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization, with some items stripped out — fell to $0.5 million from $1.8 million. Chief Executive Tal Jacobson cited “encouraging adoption” for Perion One and Outmax, and the company reiterated its 2026 outlook for contribution ex-TAC of $215 million to $235 million and adjusted EBITDA of $50 million to $54 million. Perion
The growth numbers were sharper inside Perion’s newer channels. An investor presentation showed Outmax AI Agent spend up 316% year over year on a pro forma basis, connected TV spend up 68%, digital out-of-home spend up 29%, and Perion One spend up 6%. Connected TV means ads delivered through internet-connected television; digital out-of-home refers to ads on screens in places such as stores, transit hubs and billboards.
That was not enough for the stock. PERI lagged a firmer tape in ad-tech and growth shares: Magnite rose about 1.0%, PubMatic gained 3.2%, and The Trade Desk added 1.3%, while the Nasdaq Composite edged up 0.1% to 26,293.10.
Canaccord Genuity kept a Buy rating and $14 price target after the results, Investing.com reported, while noting that Perion’s revenue and connected TV performance were modestly below consensus and profit was slightly above expectations. The firm also lowered estimates modestly because of near-term uncertainty, according to the report.
On Perion’s earnings call, Raymond James analyst Andrew Marok called the Outmax figures “really good numbers” but said the agentic ad space was “increasingly crowded.” Jacobson answered that Perion’s edge was its ability to operate across CTV, web and social platforms, including so-called closed gardens — ad ecosystems controlled by large platforms, where outside access is limited. Perion
But the setup is not clean. Chief Financial Officer Elad Tzubery said oil-price inflation and Middle East tensions were creating uncertainty in ad budgets, especially in consumer packaged goods and, to a lesser extent, autos. He also cited “short planning cycles” among advertisers, a risk if large customers delay spending into the back half of the year.
Needham analyst Laura Martin pressed management on another threat: Google’s AI-driven push to keep users inside its own search and shopping environment. Jacobson said Perion had already moved away from open-web exposure toward out-of-home and closed platforms, adding that “open web is not going to be the future.” Perion
The next test is whether second-half spending arrives. Tzubery told Lake Street’s Eric Martinuzzi that Perion expects growth to move into double digits later in 2026 and aim toward 20% in the fourth quarter, but that depends on strategic agreements ramping as planned. For now, the market is treating PERI less like an AI turnaround and more like a small ad-tech stock still waiting to prove the model.
