NEW YORK, May 26, 2026, 12:04 (EDT)
- Stagwell shares traded up roughly 3.4% around midday, beating gains in the wider U.S. equity market.
- The company made the move after meeting with investors and reporting Q1 results, which included higher revenue but a bigger GAAP net loss.
- Management is sticking with its 2026 outlook. Ad-spending risk and debt are still issues to watch.
Stagwell Inc. shares moved higher Tuesday, with trading resuming after the U.S. Memorial Day holiday and investors sticking with the ad group’s AI and digital transformation story.
The shares last traded at $6.73, gaining 22 cents over the previous close of $6.51. Volume was around 660,000 shares. The stock moved between $6.50 and $6.85 intraday, market data show.
Short week ahead for the Nasdaq, with the exchange marking Monday, May 25 as a market holiday for Memorial Day. That means regular trading picks up again on Tuesday.
Stagwell moved against the market trend. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust gained roughly 0.5%, and the Invesco QQQ Trust, tracking big Nasdaq growth names, added about 1.3%.
Stagwell didn’t put out a quarterly update Tuesday. The most recent events for the stock are its May investor-conference calendar and its Q1 results out April 30, where the company posted $704 million in revenue, up 8%, and net revenue of $585 million, a 4% increase.
Stagwell CEO Mark Penn said at a J.P. Morgan tech conference on May 19 that the company is “strongly positioned for AI,” and called AI marketing tools “part of a whole pivot” for Stagwell. Seeking Alpha
Stagwell’s pitch to investors centers on its claim it can outpace the bigger advertising groups. The company, which is smaller than traditional agency networks, reported in its first-quarter results that Digital Transformation net revenue was up 9%. Organic net revenue growth for that segment, which cuts out acquisitions, divestitures and currency moves, came in at 5.6%.
Management reaffirmed its 2026 outlook, sticking with targets for total net revenue growth between 8% and 12%, adjusted EBITDA of $475 million to $525 million, and adjusted EPS from 98 cents to $1.12. Adjusted EBITDA is earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization, with selected items excluded.
Stagwell CFO Ryan Greene said in April the company “shrunk our share count to under 250 million” and was still “on course to deliver” its full-year and free-cash-flow conversion targets. SEC
Stagwell has been buying back shares as part of its plan. In the May 1 quarterly filing, the company said it bought 7.3 million Class A shares in the first quarter at $6.16 a piece on average, spending $44.9 million before fees. That left $356.2 million still authorized for buybacks as of March 31.
Peers traded mixed. Omnicom Group dropped around 0.6%, and WPP’s U.S. shares slipped roughly 0.9%. That left Stagwell ahead of the small group of advertising stocks at midday.
But it’s not a one-way trade. Stagwell posted a GAAP net loss attributable to common shareholders of $13 million for the first quarter, wider than the $3 million loss a year ago. In its filings, the company pointed to risks like client ad-spending cuts, competition, AI product execution, tariffs, foreign exchange and its debt load. Long-term debt was about $1.44 billion as of March 31.
For now, investors are shelling out for signs that the AI and digital-services push can keep growth up through the back half of the year. The next hurdle: seeing if new contracts and bullish talk on the conference circuit show up in better earnings rather than just more revenue.
