Earnings call transcript: MNTN Q1 2026 tops forecasts, stock rises

MNTN Inc (MNTN) reported its first-quarter 2026 earnings, showcasing a strong financial performance that exceeded market expectations. The company posted earnings per share (EPS) of $0.11, significantly surpassing the forecasted $0.04, resulting in a 175% earnings surprise. Revenue for the quarter reached $73.7 million, marking a 25% year-over-year increase. Following the release, MNTN’s stock rose 7.37% during regular trading and gained an additional 2.36% in the aftermarket, reflecting investor confidence in the company’s performance and future prospects.

MNTN demonstrated robust growth in Q1 2026, with a 25% increase in revenue compared to the previous year. This growth was driven by strong execution across its Performance TV business and the successful divestiture of Maximum Effort, which streamlined operations and improved gross margins. The company’s focus on innovation, especially in AI-driven creative solutions, positions it well in the rapidly evolving digital advertising market. With a market capitalization of $825 million and revenue growth of 29% over the last twelve months, MNTN’s expansion trajectory remains strong despite broader market headwinds.

MNTN’s EPS of $0.11 significantly exceeded the forecasted $0.04, resulting in a 175% surprise. This performance highlights the company’s effective cost management and revenue growth strategies. The earnings surprise is notably higher than in previous quarters, reflecting enhanced operational efficiency and market execution.

Following the earnings release, MNTN’s stock rose 7.37% during regular trading and gained an additional 2.36% in the aftermarket, reaching $10.83. This positive movement indicates strong investor confidence, driven by the earnings beat and favorable guidance. The stock remains below its 52-week high of $32.49 but shows recovery momentum. InvestingPro analysis suggests the stock is currently undervalued, with analysts setting price targets ranging from $14 to $27. For investors seeking comprehensive valuation insights, MNTN is featured in InvestingPro’s Most Undervalued Stocks list, alongside detailed Fair Value analysis and 8+ additional ProTips available exclusively to subscribers.

For Q2 2026, MNTN projects revenue between $81 million and $83 million, with adjusted EBITDA between $19 million and $22 million. The full-year 2026 guidance forecasts revenue of $347 million to $357 million, reflecting a 24% year-over-year growth at the midpoint. These projections underscore the company’s commitment to sustaining growth through strategic investments and product innovation.

CEO Mark Douglas highlighted the company’s strong start to 2026, stating, "Our results reflect the successful execution of our growth strategy and the increasing adoption of our innovative AI-driven platforms." He emphasized the importance of continued product development and market expansion to capitalize on the growing demand for performance-driven advertising solutions.

During the earnings call, analysts inquired about MNTN’s strategy for expanding its customer base and maintaining growth momentum. Executives reiterated their focus on product innovation and strategic partnerships to drive customer acquisition and market penetration. Concerns about competitive dynamics and potential macroeconomic impacts were also addressed, with management expressing confidence in their ability to navigate these challenges.

Moderator: I will now hand the conference over to Brinlea Johnson. Please go ahead.

Brinlea Johnson, Investor Relations, MNTN: Good afternoon. Thank you for joining us for MNTN’s first quarter 2026 earnings call. With me today is Mark Douglas, CEO, and Patrick Pohlen, CFO. Just to remind everyone, today’s call includes forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties, and actual results can materially differ from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements. For the risks and uncertainties that may affect future results, please see our most recently filed periodic report, which is also available on our website. We will also discuss non-GAAP financial measures on today’s call. Reconciliations of these measures are available in our earnings materials on our website. With that, I’ll turn the call over to Mark. Please go ahead.

Mark Douglas, Chief Executive Officer, MNTN: Thank you for joining us today. MNTN reported strong financial results, delivering first quarter revenue growth of 25% year-over-year, along with strong adjusted EBITDA growth of 74% year-over-year, and record positive net income. Before we get into numbers, I wanna take a step back and remind everyone about MNTN’s unique value proposition in the connected TV market, and then discuss our future priorities that continue to position MNTN for a long runway and durable growth. I’ve said this many times. I founded MNTN with the mission to democratize television advertising. Democratizing TV means bringing any size brand from emerging e-commerce companies to category leaders to the most exciting storytelling medium in the world, the TV in your home. Doing this for one reason, to enable emerging organizations to grow their business and drive incremental revenue.

These brands wanna reach very specific consumers alongside content that not only performs well, but elevates their brand, and they want that investment to be measurable from the start. That’s performance marketing applied to television. It’s simple. Choose your budget, your audience, your goals, and upload your creative. Everything is automated from targeting the optimization, bringing digital marketing precision and accountability to streaming TV. AI plays an ever-expanding role in that automation, but we’re using AI in creative too. QuickFrame AI, our AI-powered creative video platform, was released from beta this morning and has become one of the fastest-growing elements in the MNTN suite. Our customers benefit from using QuickFrame AI as it combines AI video generation with professional-grade creative controls, so teams can produce polished videos easily, iterate continuously, and go live quickly. The latest release, QuickFrame AI 3.0, brings a major expansion of capabilities.

This update includes savable characters, a new storyboard editor, collaborative editing, and more. It continues to evolve as a creative platform designed to accelerate creative output and bring more campaigns to market with less friction. MNTN has consistently led through product innovation. We’ve been first in Performance TV in a number of innovations that directly impact our customers. That includes the first brand direct self-serve platform for television, the first company to bring performance advertising to connected TV, the first to provide AI targeting for connected TV, and the first to provide creative AI tools that can create TV commercials in minutes. We’ll continue to innovate and expand our AI capabilities with several new features already in customer beta and moving towards broader release. We also recently announced the addition of Garland Hill as MNTN’s chief revenue officer and Peter Blacker as head of content.

Garland was previously head of growth at TikTok. He launched that team from scratch to over 1,000 people and billions in revenue. Prior to TikTok, Garland led the CPG sales team at Meta. No one is better suited to lead and continue to build MNTN’s revenue. Peter Blacker’s previous role was head of streaming at NBCUniversal, where he built NBC’s streaming division. Television has the best content in the world, and Peter’s role at MNTN is to ensure MNTN provides our customers access to nearly all of that content. In Q1, we provided our customers access to performance advertising across nearly all streaming networks, including advertising on March Madness, the NHL playoffs, Major League Baseball, reality content like Housewives, The Traitors, and more. We have even more exciting content continuing to roll out due to Peter’s efforts.

Together, they fortify two key areas of our growth strategy, scaling revenue, and continued access to the best TV content available. Looking ahead, our priorities are clear. First, continue to attract new customers. We’re very focused on bringing new customers onto our platform and actively expanding our footprint in the SMB market. We’re executing on a massive opportunity and a TAM that we created, having successfully transformed TV into a measurable performance-driven advertising channel. Second, innovate and launch new products. We continue to invest in R&D and have a strong product pipeline positioned to capitalize on this market. As of today, over 50% of MNTN’s headcount is engineering, which we believe is the highest in our industry. Third, leverage AI. AI is an enabler to our business to both improve our product innovation and to become more efficient in our own operations to drive margin expansion.

Finally, accelerate our go-to-market. We are investing in sales and partnerships to broaden distribution and reach more customers. MNTN is helping a whole new generation of marketers unlock the full potential of television as a performance channel. With solid customer growth, continued innovation across our platform, and expanding margins, MNTN is well-positioned for sustained growth and profitability. Now I’ll turn it over to Patrick.

Patrick Pohlen, Chief Financial Officer, MNTN: Thank you, Mark. We reported strong first quarter results to start the year, exceeding our prior revenue and adjusted EBITDA guidance. Our solid performance reflects continued customer adoption of Performance TV, particularly by companies that had not previously advertised on television. Our first quarter revenue increased to $73.7 million, up 25% year-over-year after adjusting for the divestiture of Maximum Effort on April 1, 2025. To note, this will be the last quarter where we report revenue excluding Maximum Effort. We again included a table in our press release and also in our investor presen