PubMatic (NASDAQ:PUBM) Posts Quarterly Earnings Results, Beats Expectations By $0.13 EPS

PubMatic (NASDAQ:PUBM) issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday. The company reported $0.29 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.16 by $0.13, FiscalAI reports. The company had revenue of $80.05 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $76.12 million. PubMatic had a negative return on equity of 2.78% and a negative net margin of 2.51%.

Here are the key takeaways from PubMatic’s conference call:

• PubMatic beat Q4 guidance with $27.8M adjusted EBITDA (a 35% margin), GAAP net income of $6.7M, free cash flow up 32% to $46M, and a strong balance sheet with $145.5M cash and zero debt.
• Management positions PubMatic as an early leader in agentic AI — launching AgenticOS, co-founding the Ad Context Protocol, running 250+ agentic deals, and rolling out AI publisher solutions that already monetize ~10% of publishers.
• Secular growth engines powered results — CTV grew over 50% year-over-year (ex-political), mobile app revenue accelerated (~25% in Q4), and emerging revenues (Activate/Commerce/AI) nearly doubled and now represent roughly 10–12% of total revenue.
• Near-term guidance is muted — Q1 revenue of $58–60M and adjusted EBITDA around break-even reflect lingering headwinds from a legacy DSP and seasonality, while potential upside from Google remedies or litigation remains uncertain and is excluded from the outlook.

PubMatic Trading Up 11.2%

PubMatic stock traded up $0.79 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $7.86. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,189,028 shares, compared to its average volume of 664,975. PubMatic has a twelve month low of $6.15 and a twelve month high of $13.88. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $7.64 and a 200-day moving average price of $8.27. The firm has a market cap of $364.86 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -41.37 and a beta of 1.58.

Insider Activity

In other PubMatic news, CEO Rajeev K. Goel sold 44,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $6.28, for a total transaction of $276,320.00. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Steven Pantelick sold 18,398 shares of PubMatic stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $8.81, for a total value of $162,086.38. Following the sale, the chief financial officer owned 28,685 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $252,714.85. This represents a 39.08% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 431,650 shares of company stock worth $3,434,455 over the last ninety days. 26.42% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On PubMatic

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Millennium Management LLC lifted its position in PubMatic by 320.0% during the 4th quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 918,127 shares of the company’s stock valued at $8,144,000 after purchasing an additional 699,549 shares during the period. UBS Group AG boosted its position in PubMatic by 254.7% in the third quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 422,630 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,499,000 after buying an additional 303,479 shares in the last quarter. Trexquant Investment LP boosted its position in PubMatic by 437.0% during the 4th quarter. Trexquant Investment LP now owns 307,249 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,725,000 after buying an additional 250,036 shares during the period. Two Sigma Investments LP raised its stake in PubMatic by 146.7% during the third quarter. Two Sigma Investments LP now owns 384,905 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,187,000 after buying an additional 228,878 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. bought a new stake in PubMatic in the second quarter valued at $2,084,000. Institutional investors own 64.26% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

PUBM has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. B. Riley Financial upgraded shares of PubMatic from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $10.00 to $10.50 in a research note on Friday. Wolfe Research restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $14.00 price objective on shares of PubMatic in a research report on Monday, January 5th. Evercore increased their price objective on PubMatic from $12.00 to $13.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 11th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of PubMatic from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday, January 10th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d)” rating on shares of PubMatic in a research report on Thursday, January 22nd. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $12.50.

Key Headlines Impacting PubMatic

Here are the key news stories impacting PubMatic this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Q4 results beat — PubMatic reported $0.29 EPS vs. consensus $0.16 and revenue of $80.05M vs. $76.12M, driving the initial market reaction. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Near-term revenue guide slightly above consensus — Q1 revenue guidance of $58.0M–$60.0M vs. the $57.7M consensus, suggesting modest top-line momentum into the new quarter. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst upgrade — B. Riley upgraded PUBM from Neutral to Buy and raised its price target to $10.50, signaling increased analyst confidence and ~30% upside to the new target. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Strategic growth driver — management is accelerating adoption of agentic AI and is targeting double-digit revenue growth in H2 2026, which investors may view as a high-leverage growth opportunity for the adtech stack. Read More. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Full Q4 earnings call / transcript is available for detail on revenue mix, margin drivers and 2026 cadence — useful for investors wanting management color. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Profitability still mixed — despite the quarter’s beats, PubMatic reported a negative net margin (~-2.5%) and negative ROE, indicating the company is not yet generating positive net income on the year. Investors should watch margin trends as revenue scales. Read More.

PubMatic Company Profile

PubMatic is a cloud-based digital advertising technology company that provides a supply-side platform (SSP) enabling publishers to automate and optimize the sale of their ad inventory across display, mobile, video and connected TV channels. Its core offerings include real-time bidding infrastructure, header bidding solutions under the OpenWrap brand and data analytics tools that deliver actionable insights on audience engagement and monetization performance. By facilitating seamless auctions and providing transparent reporting, PubMatic helps publishers maximize yield while improving buyer experiences.

Founded in 2006 by Rajeev Goel and a team of ad-tech veterans, PubMatic grew from an early entrant in programmatic selling to a publicly traded company, listing on the Nasdaq (symbol: PUBM) in December 2020.