There are plenty of things for an executive to worry about, but Jeff Green probably has one of the best gigs in town.
“I’m way more concerned about the tidal wave of opportunity being too big and us not being equipped to handle all of the opportunity that comes to us than I am that the wave doesn’t exist or it’s too small,” Green, the CEO, and co-founder of The Trade Desk (TTD) , said during the company’s recent earnings call.
Related: Analyst revises Trade Desk stock price target ahead of earnings
Green’s enthusiasm was undoubtedly related to the company’s second-quarter results, which beat Wall Street’s expectations.
“Our growth rate significantly outpaced the rest of the digital marketing industry just as it has every quarter for the last few years,” he told analysts.
The Trade Desk, a programmatic marketing company, enables buying media inventory across various channels, including display, video, audio, and connected TV, most commonly used to stream video.
Green noted that the total addressable global digital advertising market has the potential to reach $1 trillion and added that the Trade Desk is positioned well to capture more than its fair share of that $1 trillion.
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – JANUARY 06: (Left) Jeff Green, Founder, CEO, and Chairman, The Trade Desk is riding a wave of programmatic advertising demand.
Trade Desk CEO: ‘We bring best value to market’
“I’m convinced that our success has been forged on the back of consistent strong 20%-plus revenue growth year after year for the past several years,” he told analysts. “By comparison, our ad-funded peers have gone through periods of much lower growth and even stagnation in some cases.”
“That means we are consistently gaining market share quarter after quarter and year after year,” Green added. “And I firmly believe that’s because we continue to bring the best innovation and best value to the market.”
Related: Analyst reboots Trade Desk stock price target after Netflix deal
He also discussed Kokai, the AI-based media buying platform that the company launched last year.
“Kokai allows our clients to deploy data about their most loyal customers and then use that data as a seed to grow and harvest the next generation of loyal customers,” he said. “Kokai helps them target those new audiences across the many thousands of destinations that comprise the best of the open Internet.”
“And it leverages AI to help them make sense of the roughly 15 million ad opportunities we see every second and the hundreds of variables associated with each one of them,” Green added.
Green discussed Alphabet’s (GOOGL) current legal headaches during the question and answer period.
Judge Amit Mehta of the US District Court of the District of Columbia decided on Aug. 5 that Alphabet, Inc.’s Google illegally monopolized the search engine market through exclusive deals with Apple, (AAPL) , and others.
Related: Analysts review Apple stock price hit from Google antitrust ruling
Google is also facing an antitrust trial next month in the Eastern District of Virginia over anticompetitive conduct in advertising technology, which Bloomberg Law said “could be a seismic event—potentially determining whether Google remains a single entity or is fragmented into separate companies.”
“They are a weaker competitor than they’ve been for us in years past,” Green said. “And as I’ve often said, we’ve been winning in an unfair market. Imagine what we could do if we’re competing in a fair market.”
“I think as a result of that, I believe we’ll win no matter what the outcomes of this case are, but it will still be fun to watch,” he noted.
The Trade Desk posted second-quarter earnings of 39 cents per share, up from 28 cents a year ago and beating the consensus estimate of 36 cents per share.
Analysts cite ‘strong quarter’
Revenue totaled $584.6 million, up from $464 million a year ago, and coming in ahead of Wall Street’s call for $578.1 million in sales.
Looking ahead, the company guided to third-quarter revenue of $618 million, above estimates of $605.5 million.
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TheStreet Pro’s Chris Versace liked those numbers and raised his price target on The Trade Desk shares to $120 from $110.
“Trade Desk continues to benefit from the overall mix shift toward digital advertising as advertisers look to reach consumer eyeballs,” he wrote in his Aug. 9 column.
“It is also benefiting from the growing use of advertising business models across streaming video platforms and digital audio like those found at Netflix (NFLX) , Disney (DIS) , Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) , Amazon (AMZN) , Spotify (SPOT) and others,” Versace added.
Several analysts adjusted their price targets following The Trade Desk’s earnings report.
RBC Capital raised the firm’s price target on the company to $120 from $110 and kept an outperform rating on the shares.
The Trade Desk delivered a strong quarter in what has been a mixed macro, delivering upside to revenue and strong profitability, the firm said.
The company’s raised third-quarter guidance also stands out from peers as The Trade Desk continues to benefit from several cyclical and secular drivers, including market share gains from walled gardens but most notably within CTV, the firm added.
Truist boosted the firm’s price target on Trade Desk to $108 from $105 and maintained a buy rating on the shares, citing the company’s earnings beat and the “stronger” third-quarter guide.
Trade Desk’s execution remains exceptional amid a volatile digital ad environment, with strong momentum and market share gains driven by connected TV business given its rapid adoption in the U.S. and internationally, the firm said.
KeyBanc analyst Justin Patterson raised the firm’s price target on Trade Desk to $115 from $105 and kept an overweight rating on the shares.
The Trade Desk is clearly gaining share in the ad market, with benefits from the Kokai innovation and the Netflix partnership still to come, the analyst said.
Patterson said that he thinks more than 20% year-over-year revenue growth is achievable in 2025 and 2026, with the optionality of faster growth around regulatory decisions.
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