Pinterest, Inc. (PINS) Earnings & Analysis

Latest quarter

Pinterest reported Q2 FY2026 revenue of $1.2 billion, up 18.2% from $998.2 million a year earlier. CFO Julia Donnelly said growth was led by the U.S. and Canada, where advertising platform improvements and changes to the sales organization contributed to spending.

Pinterest reported a diluted loss per share of −$0.08, compared with diluted earnings per share of $0.06 a year earlier. Gross margin was 78.2%, versus 79.7%, while operating margin was −4.68%, versus −0.43%. Free cash flow rose to $269.9 million from $196.7 million. Donnelly said Q2 cost of revenue included the full-quarter impact of tvScientific and investment in additional GPU capacity.

In the later quarter ended September 30, Pinterest’s filing reported revenue of $1,173.9 million, up 12% year over year; revenue’s variance against the consensus was −2.26%. Adjusted EPS was $0.46, below the $0.50 consensus. The filing attributed revenue growth primarily to consideration advertising, supported by audience growth, while Europe revenue was flat amid lower advertising demand.

Adjusted EPS is the figure the consensus estimates, not the GAAP EPS above.

What management said on the call

On Pinterest’s third-quarter call, CEO Bill Ready said the regulatory impact in Europe was greater than the company had anticipated. Ready also said the cross-border advertising shortfall grew in the later weeks of the quarter and that he did not expect the spending to return for the holidays. He said fourth-quarter growth was tracking broadly in line with third-quarter growth, citing results to date.

On the earlier Q2 call, CFO Julia Donnelly said ad platform enhancements were improving returns for advertisers and supporting spending in the U.S. and Canada. She said the shift of Prime Day and World Cup spending also benefited Q2. For Europe and the rest of the world, Donnelly said sales-organization changes and comparisons with the prior year moderated growth; regulatory actions affecting Asia-based cross-border retailers added pressure, particularly in Europe.

In Q2 call questions about the product, Ready said Pinterest was bringing more AI capabilities directly into the user experience. He described Pinterest Assistant as a conversational layer intended to help users research products and narrow choices. Asked about an advertiser pilot, Ready said participating advertisers had seen performance improvements and that Pinterest planned to expand the work to a limited number of additional advertisers in Q3.

Ready also said Pinterest Performance+ automated aspects of bidding, budgeting, targeting and creative work. He said updates to ad delivery models produced a 28% improvement in return on ad spend during testing for small and medium-sized advertisers using Performance+ with ROAS bidding.

On investment, Donnelly said on the Q2 call that Pinterest was adding GPU capacity and using a mixture of proprietary, open-source and selected third-party models. She said AI-related compute and token spending would grow over time and was included in the company’s outlook.

Guidance

Pinterest’s latest release expects Q4 2026 revenue of $1,425 million to $1,475 million, with 8% - 12% year-over-year growth and a modest foreign-exchange headwind. It expects Q4 adjusted EBITDA of $538 million to $588 million. The earlier Q3 outlook covered revenue of $1.190 billion to $1.210 billion and adjusted EBITDA of $335 million to $355 million; those ranges applied to a different quarter.