Reddit (RDDT) Q1 2026 earnings report

reddit It reported better-than-expected profit and revenue in its first-quarter earnings report on Thursday and also issued an optimistic forecast. The stock rose more than 9% in extended trading.

Here’s how the company compares to LSEG forecasts:

• Earnings per share: $1.01 versus 58 cents expected
• Revenues: 663 million dollars, while the expectation was 611 million dollars

Revenue rose 69% in the quarter from $392 million a year earlier, Reddit said in an earnings release. Net income rose to $204 million, or $1.01 per share, from $26 million, or 13 cents per share, a year ago.

Reddit said second-quarter sales should be in the range of $715 million to $725 million, above analysts’ estimates of $712 million. Adjusted earnings will be between $285 million and $295 million, above the average estimate of $276 million.

The strong results continue the trend in online advertising. Meta And AlphabetBoth leaders in digital advertising reported their fastest revenue growth in years, beating revenue in Wednesday’s earnings reports. They also announced plans to increase the amount of money they spend on AI infrastructure.

Alphabet shares rose on Thursday, while Meta shares fell; This highlighted investors’ concerns about Facebook’s parent company’s high AI spending and lack of cloud business.

Reddit CEO Steve Huffman told analysts during Thursday’s earnings call that the social media company’s business has grown significantly despite the lack of heavy spending on capital expenditures. Reddit now has seven consecutive quarters of revenue growth above 60%, he noted, and the company has “record cash flow of more than $300 million.”

“At the same time, our capital expenditures remain low at just $1 million, underscoring the advantage of Reddit’s capital-light model,” Huffman said. “When you look at over 300 publicly traded tech companies, there is only one company that combines this kind of growth, profitability and efficiency, and that is Reddit.

Reddit’s global daily active unique users (DAUq) rose 17% year-over-year to 126.8 million in the quarter. This figure exceeded analysts’ estimates of 125.9 million. The company’s US-specific DAUq reached 53.5 million in the first quarter, representing a 7% year-over-year increase.

Huffman told analysts that Reddit currently “has a goal of reaching 100 million daily U.S. users and is actively pursuing a strategy to get us there,” but did not disclose a specific time frame.

Average revenue per user (ARPU) was $5.23, beating analysts’ estimates of $4.81. The company’s U.S. specific ARPU came in at $9.63, above the $8.53 expected by Wall Street.

The “Other revenues” category, which includes the social media company’s data licensing business, rose 15% from the previous year to $39 million. Google and OpenAI are two of Reddit’s largest data licensing partners.

Some of the non-revenue benefits of Reddit’s data licensing business include “citations” and “mindshare,” Huffman said. He also said that “these companies have data centers and underlying models that Reddit lacks” but is important to the social media company’s product and growth strategy.

“We have important partnerships with both Google and OpenAI,” Huffman said. I think these are very meaningful and mutual for us. We continue to value them.”

WRISTWATCH: There are tensions in the market, especially in Meta, regarding capital expenditure plans.