US stock futures steady after Wall St gains on rate cut bets; PPI inflation on tap
Investing.com - Pinterest unveiled a stronger-than-anticipated top-line outlook for the current quarter, as the image-sharing group’s focus on artificial intelligence showed signs of helping power user growth.
Shares in Pinterest (NYSE:PINS) (NYSE:PINS) were up by more than 21% in premarket U.S. trading following the announcement.
Boosting the stock was the firm’s guidance for the first quarter, with Pinterest forecasting revenue in the range of $837 million to $852 million, compared with expectations for $835.9 million.
In a statement, CEO Bill Ready said the company’s strategy, which has recently focused on using artificial intelligence-enhanced tools to drive advertiser spending on the platform, "is paying off." Marketers have also been attracted to the service by an uptick in Gen Z users and the addition of more shoppable content.
"People are coming to Pinterest more often, the platform has never been more actionable," Ready said.
Analysts noted that the firm is turning to third-party ad deals with mega-cap tech names like Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) as well in order to build out alternative revenue streams.
"[T]he majority of growth came from [first-party] demand sources and [third-party] demand sources continue to grow sequentially," analysts at Stifel said in a note to clients.
For the quarter ended on December 31, Pinterest posted revenue of $1.15 billion, compared with expectations of $1.14 billion.
Global monthly active users, or MAUs, reached an all-time high of 553 million, up 11% year-over-year and surpassing estimates of 545.8 million. Meanwhile, global average revenue per user, or ARPU, climbed 6% to $2.12, with U.S. and Canada in particular jumping 12% to $9.00.
"[W]e [...] needed management’s positive rhetoric to show up in the numbers, and Pinterest delivered," analysts at Bernstein said in a note to clients.
(Yasin Ebrahim contributed reporting.)