9 hours Ago By [email protected] (Keithen Drury)
The stock market drawdown has opened up several investment opportunities, but few are more attractive than The Trade Desk ( TTD 1.33% ) right now. Some unfortunate timing hit the stock, and it has actually been hit by two sell-offs in a row, which has made the stock much cheaper than it has been in some time.
The Trade Desk's growth runway is massive, and if you don't buy shares of this top-tier company, you'll regret it years down the road. The Trade Desk is bigger than it was the last time it was valued at this level The Trade Desk has been a rock-solid performer for its entire life on the public markets. It had never missed management revenue guidance but failed to meet those expectations in the fourth quarter.
As a result, the stock plummeted more than 30% after it reported Q4 results on Feb. 12. That was just a few days before the S&P 500 notched its last all-time high before the stock market moved lower.
As a result, the already beaten-down stock fell even further, leading to the current point where The Trade Desk is down 65% from its all-time high. You'd have to rewind back to January 2023 to see the last time the stock traded this low, but investors need to ask themselves: Is The Trade Desk a far better company than it was in January 2023? Part of the reason The Trade Desk missed its revenue guidance was its transition from one platform to another. The Trade Desk's primary product is a software platform that helps ad buyers (companies with a product or service to advertise) place their ads in the most optimal locations.
The Trade Desk may not have access to some areas of the Internet, like Facebook or Google, but it does have reach into important areas like podcasts and connected TV. The 100% transition from its old Solimar platform to its new Kokai platform caused some issues, which is why The Trade Desk missed revenue expectations. Over the long term, this will be a much better platform for the company and its clients because Kokai is an AI-based platform that can adjust ad campaigns based on the data that it sees instantly.
Another reason why The Trade Desk dropped was that it gave fairly mundane Q1 guidance, with revenue only expected to grow 17%. We'll find out the true growth rate when The Trade Desk reports on May 8, but I expect them to exceed this projection. After a revenue miss, management wants a guaranteed win, so "underguiding" for Q1 so it can get back on track seems like a wise move.
But even if The Trade Desk just meets expectations, the stock looks like a great value here. The stock looks like a strong buy at these levels After the sell-off, The Trade Desk's stock is starting to look extremely attractive, especially considering its market value at the start of 2025. TTD PE Ratio (Forward) data by YCharts Though 27 times forward earnings isn't cheap, it has a massive growth runway, especially as society transitions from linear to connected TV.
Wall Street analysts expect 17% revenue growth in 2025 and 20% in 2026, so the stock is clearly expected to put up market-beating growth. The market was willing to pay a sky-high premium for the stock heading into the new year, but a revenue miss and a market-wide sell-off caused the stock to plummet to lows not seen for a long time. This seems like the perfect opportunity to scoop up an industry leader for cheap and hold onto the stock for three to five years as the recovery begins .
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