We’ve all got secret Pinterest boards right – no? Not even for that dream house? Well, it seems like activist investors Elliott Investment Management went one better and declared their true love for Pinterest by disclosing on Monday that it had become the largest shareholder in Pinterest (PINS, $19.82), backing the management of the digital pin-board firm and sending the company's shares up 21%.
This all came on the back of the company announcing its Q2 results, which was a bit of a mixed bag. Pinterest said global monthly active users declined by 5% from a year earlier to 433 million. While that sort of drop-off is alarming for a social media app that relies on eyeballs to attract advertisers, analysts were expecting a steeper decline to 431 million. Bottom line numbers came in at $666 million vs. $667 million expected with the EPS standing at 11 cents adjusted per share vs. 18 cents per share expected.
Pinterest saw weakness from advertisers in the consumer packaged goods category, big-box retailers and mid-market advertisers with its chief number cruncher admitting that the digital advertising environment will continue to be challenging. According to their estimates, third-quarter revenue will grow "mid-single digits on a year-over-year percentage basis," below analysts' projections for sales growth of 12.7%.
Why it matters
Like its social media counterparts, Pinterest has suffered from advertisers cutting back on budgets in response to increasing costs and recession fears. Facebook parent company Meta (META, $ 159.91), Twitter (TWTR, $40.89), and Snap (SNAP, $9.54) all reported second-quarter earnings that missed on the top and bottom lines, and all attributed a weak online advertising market to their bleak results.