Pinterest Explodes 15% After CEO Hallucinates The Boldest Statement Of The Year…

Love to see it. Pinterest is on fire this morning as share’s soared 15% after-hours because the company that used to be a digital vision board for suburban moms and wedding planners has now convinced Wall Street that it’s the new shopping mecca for Gen Z. 

(Source: Giphy) 

In short, Pinterest dropped their Q1 earnings, and while it wasn’t a blowout quarter, it was no-doubt good enough. Revenue came in at $855 million, a modest beat. EPS missed, but no one cared. Because the second-quarter guidance—$960 to $980 million—was just high enough to make analysts forget they’ve spent the last two years pretending this company was becoming irrelevant. 

CEO, Bill Ready, got on the call and delivered the exact verbiage that gets Patagonia wearing analyst all horned up: “AI advancements,” “intentional shopping,” “secular share taker.” All the usual word salad, but with just enough conviction to make it feel promising and real. But then, he dropped the line of the year, the one that should go in the Corporate Earnings Call Hall of Fame (the same hall where Jeff Skilling once called an analyst an a$$hole before Enron exploded in its own hubris)---Bill Said, and I quote, “Pinterest is where Gen Z goes to shop.” Think about that for a second. Mr. Ready didn’t say TikTok, Instagram, or Amazon… he said Pinterest. The digital refrigerator door of the internet.

(Source: Bloomberg) 

The best part? He wasn’t joking. He said it like it was gospel. But hey, the numbers were technically green, and in this market, that’s all it takes. But where is he getting this audacious and bold statement? Good question. Pinterest’s user count is around 570 million monthly actives which is up 10%. That beat estimates too with that number doing a lot of the heavy lifting right now. 

From there, advertising revenue is still the only game to care about here. Pinterest’s entire business model is to get you to click on a picture of a ceramic lamp and then somehow end up buying it from a Shopify store run by an influencer who thinks “clean girl aesthetic” is a personality. And it’s working, sort of. The company reported $172 million in adjusted EBITDA for the quarter. That’s higher than expected, and it gives them just enough financial cover to keep pretending they aren’t a glorified Etsy funnel. 

(Source: Yahoo Finance) 

Naturally, the Street ate it up. Because Pinterest pulled off the ultimate con: they convinced investors that they’ve transitioned from a user-decline situation to a secular share-taker. And in a world where Meta is juggling lawsuits and Reddit is trying to monetize memes, being boring and profitable-ish has become the move. 

Of course, Pinterest hasn’t really reinvented itself though. But for now, a decent earnings and an unhinged reality of a statement from their CEO is more than enough to get the juices flowing in share price. Now obviously, only time will tell if investors keep buying this fantasy long-term. But you have to hand it to them, the company gave analysts exactly what they wanted: a clean story, a simple beat, and just enough B.S. to keep the dream alive. 

(Source: Giphy) 

Meaning, keep your eyes on Pinterest this Friday and place your bets accordingly, friends. Until next time… 

P.S. Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t know you liked getting rekt. Let’s face it, retail investors get the short end of the stick all day everyday. It’s the smart money’s world, and we are just living in it–only useful when it comes to liquidity purposes in the market. Meaning, if you’re as pissed off as I was when I found out Milli Vanilli was lip syncing the whole time, then it’s time to go from investing blind, to investing smart. Luckily for you, the key is right here as a Stocks.News premium member. Click here to see exactly how our premium members are printing while others quake in the face of today’s market chaos. 

Stocks.News holds positions in Amazon, and Meta as mentioned in the article.