Key insights
- PubMatic (PUBM) reported Q1 2026 earnings and revenue that exceeded expectations, leading to a stock price increase. The company's growth is driven by its CTV and mobile app segments, supported by the AgenticOS platform. Positive guidance for FY2026 and FY2027 suggests continued growth. While a single company's earnings have limited broad market impact, it signals potential strength in the digital advertising sector.
PubMatic Inc. (PUBM) reported its first-quarter 2026 earnings that surpassed analyst expectations, with a notable earnings per share (EPS) of -$0.11 compared to the forecasted -$0.33. The company’s revenue also exceeded forecasts, reaching $62.6 million versus the expected $58.99 million. Following the announcement, PubMatic’s stock rose by 5.92% in after-hours trading, continuing its upward trend with a 0.47% increase in premarket trading.
PubMatic demonstrated robust performance in Q1 2026, with revenue growth driven by its high-value formats and channels such as CTV and mobile apps. Despite a GAAP net loss, the company maintained a strong cash position with zero debt, underscoring its financial resilience. The positive earnings surprise is a testament to the company’s effective cost management and strategic focus on emerging revenue streams.
PubMatic’s EPS of -$0.11 was significantly better than the forecasted -$0.33, resulting in an EPS surprise of 66.67%. Revenue also exceeded expectations by 6.12%, reflecting the company’s effective execution and growth in key revenue streams.
The stock price increased by 5.92% in after-hours trading following the earnings announcement, with further gains in premarket trading. This positive reaction indicates investor confidence in PubMatic’s financial performance and strategic direction. The stock’s recovery from its 52-week low suggests a potential upward trend.
Looking ahead, PubMatic has provided optimistic guidance, with an EPS forecast of 0.12 USD for FY2026 and 0.36 USD for FY2027. The company anticipates continued growth in its CTV and mobile app segments, supported by strategic partnerships and product innovations.
PubMatic’s leadership highlighted the success of their AgenticOS platform, which has been a key driver of growth. The CEO emphasized the platform’s ability to deliver significant efficiency gains and performance improvements for advertisers, positioning PubMatic as a leader in AI-driven advertising solutions.
During the earnings call, analysts inquired about the impact of foreign exchange fluctuations and the company’s strategy to mitigate these effects. Executives also addressed questions regarding the scalability of the AgenticOS platform and its potential to drive future growth.
Christian, Zoom Operator: Hello, everyone, and welcome to PubMatic’s first quarter 2026 earnings call. My name is Christian, and I will be your Zoom operator for today. Thank you for your attendance today, and as a reminder, this webinar is being recorded. I will now turn the call over to Stacie Clements.
Brianna Diaz, Analyst, Citizens0: Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to PubMatic’s earnings call for the first quarter of 2026. This is Stacie Clements, and I’ll be your operator today. Joining me on the call are Rajeev Goel, Co-Founder and CEO, and Steve Pantelick, CFO. Before we get started, I have a few housekeeping items. Today’s prepared remarks have been recorded after which Rajeev and Steve will host live Q&A. If you plan to ask a question, please ensure you’ve set Zoom to display your full name and firm and use the raise hand function located at the bottom of your screen. A copy of our press release can be found on the website at investors.pubmatic.com. I would like to remind participants that during this call, management will make forward-looking statements, including without limitation, statements regarding our future performance, market opportunity, growth strategy, and financial outlook.
Forward-looking statements are based on our current expectations and assumptions regarding our business, the economy, and future conditions. These forward-looking statements are subject to inherent risks, uncertainties, and changes in circumstances that are difficult to predict. You can find more information about these risks, uncertainties, and other factors in our reports filed from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission and are available on investors.pubmatic.com, including our most recent Form 10-K and any subsequent filings on Forms 10-Q or 8-K. Our actual results may differ materially from those contemplated by the forward-looking statements. We caution you, therefore, against relying on any of these forward-looking statements.
All information discussed today is as of May 7th, 2026. We do not intend and undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future developments, or otherwise, except as may be required by law. In addition, today’s discussion will include references to certain non-GAAP financial measures, including adjusted EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA margin, non-GAAP net income, cash flow from operations, and free cash flow. These non-GAAP measures are presented for supplemental informational purposes only and should not be considered a substitute for financial information presented in accordance with GAAP. A reconciliation of these measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures is available in our press release. I will now turn the call over to Rajeev.
Rajeev Goel, Co-Founder and CEO, PubMatic: Thank you, Stacie, and welcome everyone. We delivered an exceptional first quarter with revenue and adjusted EBITDA ahead of guidance. These results reflect the continued strength of our business and accelerating adoption of our AI solutions. We delivered 13% year-over-year growth in our underlying business. Emerging revenues grew over 80% year-over-year and climbed to 14% of total revenues, aided by AgenticOS. The new strategy we launched in summer of 2025 is delivering tangible results. We’re diversifying our DSP mix, growing in high consumer engagement channels such as CTV and mobile app, and creating more value for key stakeholders across the advertising ecosystem. As a pioneer in AI, our multi-year investments are paying off and fueling new revenue streams, operating leverage, and market-leading advantages that are at the early stages of compounding. Agentic AI is more than just a productivity tool.
It’s a structural shift that is redefining the entire digital advertising market. It simplifies the connections between advertisers and outcomes and transforms how value flows through the ecosystem. Over the past two decades, digital advertising has undergone two profound transformations, each creating markets measured in the $100s of billions. The first was real-time bidding, and the second was the shift to mobile consumption. Today, 1/3 transformation of even larger magnitude is underway: AI-driven agentic advertising. AI simplifies the ecosystem by automating decisions that once required large teams using fragmented systems. Our platform sits at the intersection of buyers, publishers, and audiences, enabling us to apply AI at global scale across the entire value chain, from planning and discovery to activation and measurement. Our approach fundamentally changes how value is created. It drives performance that the legacy fragmented model is structurally challenged to deliver.
Importantly, Agentic AI prioritizes outcomes, not interfaces. At the same time, AI is leveling the playing field between walled gardens and the open internet. Capabilities that once benefited closed platforms like efficiency, lower operating costs, and stronger advertising ROI are now achievable in the open internet with the added benefits of transparency and choice. As advertisers allocate spend based on measurable performance, our addressable market expands, and we are well-positioned to capture that shift. Importantly, our growth engine is directly aligned with customer outcomes. We’re evaluated on our ability to monetize every ad impression we process, and we earn revenue only when we deliver superior results for publishers and buyers. As customers see stronger performance, they increase usage, creating a self-reinforcing model where greater adoption and utilization drive both customer ROI and our own profitable growth. Our AgenticOS and Activate products extend this alignment further into the value chain.
Underpinning this model are five competitive advantages, assets that are increasingly difficult for new entrants to replicate and that compound over time. Further, they cannot be vibe coded. First is scale. Nearly the entire advertising support in open internet is available on PubMatic. We have nearly 2,000 premium publishers representing over 100,000 websites, apps, and streamers, including 28 of the top 30 global streamers. This breadth and depth of access to omni-channel inventory is built through years of trust and performance. Second is Activate. Our direct buying platform was designed from the beginning to drive performance and simplify the complexity of the ecosystem. By connecting ad demand and premium supply in a single environment, advertisers see higher ROI and publishers benefit from increased yield. Third is AgenticOS and our growing portfolio of AI agents.
We have over 20 different operational agents available for media buyers and publishers, with new agents rolling out every month to automate and optimize core advertising workflows. Our newest agent enables buyers to discover and activate curated omni-channel supply in seconds through natural language queries. For example, a media buyer simply asks for CTV inventory for male sports enthusiasts, and the agent instantly surfaces relevant opportunities, audience reach estimates, and deal options. This process used to take hours or days and is now reduced to minutes. Fourth, our owned and operated infrastructure. This is a structural advantage in the AI era. Our long-standing collaboration with NVIDIA brings advanced GPU technology directly into our platform with a variety of distinct benefits. GPU technology improves data processing to handle the massive advertising specific workloads that underpin bidding, pricing, and campaign optimization, cutting compute time and cost.
We’re using NVIDIA Triton Inference Server to deploy real-time