By Angela Palumbo

Reddit easily beat first-quarter earnings and revenue estimates, sending the stock higher late Thursday.

Reddit reported adjusted earnings of $1.01 a share on revenue of $663 million. Analysts surveyed by FactSet were expecting earnings of 57 cents a share on revenue of $608 million.

Ad revenue increased 74% year-over-year to $625 million.

In the same period last year, Reddit reported earnings of 13 cents a share on revenue of $392 million.

The social platform where users get answers to questions from peers said it expects second-quarter revenue to be between $715 million to $725 million, ahead of Wall Street's estimate of $711 million.

Shares were up 15.9% in the Friday premarket having risen 6.3% in after-hours trading following the results.

Reddit shares have soared 333% from the company's initial public offering price of $34 in March 2024. But the stock has lost momentum recently, falling 36% in 2026.

One concern for investors is increased competition from the rising use of artificial intelligence. Whether its ChatGPT, Claude, or even Google's AI Overviews, there are more options than ever for people to get quick, in-depth answers to everyday questions.

Reddit points out that it's in a unique position because it's a platform that offers insights from real people.

"As AI becomes more prevalent, people increasingly seek out real human perspectives, and in turn, AI models rely on these perspectives to train and power their products," CEO Steve Huffman said in Reddit's shareholder letter on Thursday.

Daily active user data has been another sore spot for some investors. While the company continues to report daily active user growth, that growth has slowed. Reddit reported daily active users of 126.8 million for the first quarter, a 17% increase from the prior year. That was more than the 125.9 million analysts were expecting, but it's a slowdown from the 30.7% user growth reported in the prior year.

"On the user side, we're making steady progress, but we still have work to do to increase frequency and accelerate growth toward the levels we see on leading platforms," Huffman said.

Write to Angela Palumbo at angela.palumbo@dowjones.com

This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

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May 01, 2026 05:18 ET (09:18 GMT)

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