New York, February 13, 2026, 14:43 EST — Regular session
Pinterest shares were down about 18% at $15.23 in afternoon trading on Friday, after sliding as low as $13.87 earlier in the session.
The selloff put fresh focus on how exposed smaller ad platforms can be when big retailers tighten budgets. It also lands at a moment when investors have been leaning hard on “AI-driven” ad tools as a growth story, and punishing anything that looks like a laggard.
Pinterest forecast first-quarter revenue of $951 million to $971 million, below analysts’ average estimate of $980.1 million, according to data compiled by LSEG. Chief Financial Officer Julia Donnelly said “many of the largest retailers” have been pulling back advertising spend as tariffs pressure margins. Pinterest has been expanding its AI-powered Performance+ ad suite and brought in former Spotify ads executive Lee Brown and longtime Amazon veteran Claudine Cheever to try to sharpen its pitch to marketers. (Reuters)
In its earnings release, Pinterest said fourth-quarter revenue rose 14% to $1.319 billion and full-year 2025 revenue climbed to $4.222 billion. Global monthly active users hit 619 million, and CEO Bill Ready pointed to “more than 80 billion monthly searches” as the company leans on AI to improve visual search and shopping discovery.
The backdrop has gotten tougher. Reuters reported Pinterest hit its lowest since the 2020 pandemic lows as competition heats up, including OpenAI testing ads in ChatGPT and Google adding ways to buy products while users sift AI answers in search and its Gemini chatbot. “Pinterest is constrained by legacy monetization models amid a rapidly evolving AI landscape,” said Lenny Zephirin, CEO of Zephirin Group, while Bernstein analysts warned: “We’ll probably see AI-powered Pinterest clones from Meta, OpenAI, and Amazon soon.” At least 24 brokerages cut price targets, and Reuters said Pinterest trades at about 9.49 times expected earnings over the next 12 months, versus 9.42 for Snap, 29.99 for Reddit and 21.41 for Meta — a price-to-earnings multiple that shows what investors pay for a dollar of profit. (Reuters)
But there’s an obvious risk case from here: if tariff-driven uncertainty keeps retailers defensive into March, ad budgets can still move lower, and Pinterest’s range guidance may not look conservative enough. In that scenario, the downgrades and target cuts don’t stop quickly.
There’s also the longer-running worry that AI tools change how people discover products, and who controls the funnel. If bigger platforms bundle creation, targeting and checkout in one place, smaller players can end up fighting for leftovers.
On the other hand, Pinterest doesn’t need a booming ad market to stabilize. A steadier read on retailer demand — plus evidence that Performance+ improves returns for advertisers — could slow the estimate cuts and calm the tape.
U.S. stock markets are closed on Monday for Presidents Day, which gives investors a long weekend to digest the outlook reset before trading resumes on Tuesday. (MarketWatch)
The next macro marker is February 20, when the Commerce Department is due to release the personal consumption expenditures price index report, which can shift rate expectations and risk appetite for ad-linked names. Traders will also watch for more broker note changes as the first-quarter period gets underway. (Bureau of Economic Analysis)
