Title: PRO: This Week in Visuals — Eli Lilly, Merck, Amgen, Novo Nordisk, Pfizer, Arista, Sandisk, Cloudflare, DigitalOcean, Datadog, Atlassian, HubSpot, Figma, Klaviyo, Twilio, Paycom, Axon, MercadoLibre, DoorDash, Coupang, Instacart, Etsy, Toast, Block, Fiserv, Circle, Zillow, Booking, Airbnb, Marriott, Expedia, AppLovin, The Trade Desk, Pinterest, Snap, Spotify, Match Group, Duolingo, NYT, Peloton, Sony, Take-Two, Fox, Flutter, DraftKings, McDonald's, RBI, Kraft Heinz, Celsius Source: App Economy Insights (Substack newsletter) — Saturday PRO edition Author: App Economy Insights (Bertrand) Date: 2026-AUG-08 URL: https://www.appeconomyinsights.com/p/pro-this-week-in-visuals-0b5 Type: Written newsletter (data-viz / earnings recaps; no video, no timestamps). Paid PRO post. Note: written post (paid PRO edition) — text as captured from Stephen's logged-in session; no timestamps. Key points & figures extracted from the published PRO post (the live post + its charts are the source of truth). Analytical journalism / earnings recaps, NOT stock recommendations — framing is neutral/referenced (BUY/SELL/HOLD ratings are shared only with App Economy Portfolio members). Forty-nine companies covered this week. Author disclosure at the foot of the post: he owns ANET, TEAM, DDOG, NET, HUBS, TWLO, PAYC, AXON, MELI, DASH, CPNG, XYZ, CRCL, TOST, ETSY, Z, ABNB, APP, TTD, SPOT, PINS, MTCH, DUOL, PTON, FLUT and CELH in the App Economy Portfolio.
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📊 PRO: This Week in Visuals LLY MRK AMGN NVO PFE ANET SNDK TEAM DDOG NET DOCN HUBS FIG KVYO TWLO PAYC AXON MELI DASH CPNG XYZ FI CRCL TOST CART ETSY Z BKNG ABNB MAR EXPE APP TTD SPOT PINS SNAP MTCH DUOL NYT PTON SONY TTWO APP ECONOMY INSIGHTS AUG 08, 2026 ∙ PAID 70 1 Share
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Today at a glance:
💊 Eli Lilly: Volume Crushes Price
🦠 Merck: The Bridge Broadens
🧬 Amgen: Growth Outruns the Cliff
🇩🇰 Novo Nordisk: Pill Holds Up
💉 Pfizer: Pipeline Questions
🌐 Arista Networks: Supply Catches Up
💾 Sandisk: AI Eats NAND
☁️ Cloudflare: Agentic Acceleration
🌊 DigitalOcean: AI Accelerates
🐶 Datadog: AI Concentration Bites
☁️ Atlassian: Enterprise Breakout
📢 HubSpot: Pricing Pivot Bites
🎨 Figma: AI Credits Scale
🏴 Klaviyo: Agents Gain Traction
💬 Twilio: Expansion Returns
💻 Paycom: Margins Do the Work
⚡️ Axon: Dedrone Breaks Out
🤝 MercadoLibre: Brazil Bet Pays Off
🥡 DoorDash: DashPass Takes Over
🇰🇷 Coupang: Customers Return
🥕 Instacart: Customers Come Back
📦 Etsy: Back to Etsy
🍞 Toast: Locations Reaccelerate
🔲 Block: Square Catches Up
💳 Fiserv: Reset Gets Deeper
🪙 Circle: Arc Hits the P&L
🏠 Zillow: Growth Without Traffic
🏝️ Booking: Travel Holds Up
🛖 Airbnb: Hotels Check In
🏨 Marriott: US Momentum Holds
✈️ Expedia: Consumer Catches Up
📱 AppLovin: Model Timing Miss
📺 The Trade Desk: Growth Stalls
📌 Pinterest: Growth Speed Bump
👻 Snap: Reset Starts Working
🎧 Spotify: 300 Million Paid
🔥 Match Group: Tinder Stabilizes
🦉 Duolingo: Streak Revival
🗞️ NYT: Subscriber Growth Slows
🚲 Peloton: Profit Without Growth
🎮 Sony: Beyond PlayStation
🎮 Take-Two: GTA VI Preorders Explode
📺 Fox: World Cup Windfall
🏈 Flutter: FanDuel Needs a Reset
👑 DraftKings: Predictions Get Expensive
🍟 McDonald’s: Value Misfires
🍔 RBI: Burger King Breaks Out
🌭 Kraft Heinz: Green Shoots
⚡️ Celsius: Alani Carries the Portfolio
1. 💊 Eli Lilly: Volume Crushes Price
Lilly’s Q2 revenue jumped 48% Y/Y to $23.0 billion ($2.3 billion beat), while adjusted EPS was $8.38 ($1.80 beat). Revenue growth came from a 60% increase in volume, more than offsetting a 13% decline in realized prices.
Mounjaro surged 91% to $9.9 billion and Zepbound grew 46% to $4.9 billion, bringing combined GLP-1 revenue to nearly $15 billion. International Mounjaro sales more than doubled to $5.2 billion as Lilly expands access globally, despite significant price reductions including China reimbursement.
Source: Fiscal.ai
Foundayo, Lilly’s newly launched oral GLP-1 obesity pill, generated $98 million in its first quarter on the market. The next-generation pipeline also advanced materially: retatrutide (triple-hormone obesity injection targeting GLP-1, GIP, and glucagon) delivered positive results in three additional Phase 3 obesity trials. Lilly plans to file with the FDA in Q1 2027.
Lilly raised FY26 revenue guidance to $85–$87 billion, a $2.5 billion midpoint increase. Underlying EPS guidance was also raised by $2.78 at the midpoint, but $3.03 of acquisition-related R&D charges offset that improvement, leaving reported guidance at $35.50–$36.50.
Bottom Line: The GLP-1 story remains a volume machine. Lilly is deliberately giving up price to expand access, and demand is more than compensating. Foundayo adds a new format today, while retatrutide increasingly looks like the next major leg of the obesity franchise.
2. 🦠 Merck: The Bridge Broadens
Merck’s Q2 revenue rose 5% Y/Y to $16.6 billion ($240 million beat), while adjusted EPS came in at -$0.13 ($0.13 beat), including a $2.31/share charge from the Terns acquisition.
The biggest development was Keytruda Qlex. The subcutaneous version generated $463 million, up from $128 million last quarter and well above expectations. Combined Keytruda/Qlex sales reached $8.4 billion (+5% Y/Y), making Qlex increasingly important ahead of Keytruda’s 2028 patent cliff.
The rest of the bridge portfolio also improved:
Winrevair: $588 million (+75% Y/Y).
Capvaxive: $184 million (+42%).
Ohtuvayre: rebounded after Q1 reimbursement issues.
Merck closed the $6.7 billion Terns acquisition on May 5, adding MK-4208 to its hematology pipeline, and won FDA approval for Lipfendra, its oral PCSK9 cholesterol drug.
The company raised FY26 revenue guidance by $0.4 billion to $66.3–$67.3 billion. Adjusted EPS fell to $2.66–$2.76, but the cut is driven by Terns acquisition charges rather than weaker operations. Overall, the post-Keytruda bridge is getting broader. Winrevair remains the standout, and Qlex is scaling much faster than expected.
3. 🧬 Amgen: Growth Outruns the Cliff
Amgen’s Q2 revenue jumped 10% Y/Y to $10.1 billion ($680 million beat), while adjusted EPS was $6.29 ($0.67 beat). Product sales grew 9% on higher volumes, with 22 products posting double-digit growth.
The growth portfolio is doing the heavy lifting.
Repatha surged 37% to $953 million.
EVENITY grew 38% to $714 million.
UPLIZNA jumped 90% to $335 million.
Amgen’s six key growth drivers grew 26% collectively and now account for nearly 70% of product sales. That more than offset Prolia, which fell 32% to $759 million as biosimilar competition intensified.
Amgen raised FY26 revenue guidance to $38.2–$39.4 billion from $37.1–$38.5 billion, a $1.0 billion midpoint increase, and lifted adjusted EPS to $22.30–$23.50.
The obesity pipeline narrowed. Amgen discontinued early-stage AMG 513, leaving MariTide as its main obesity asset. MariTide now has nine Phase 3 studies underway with three more planned, making its monthly-or-less-frequent dosing strategy increasingly important.
Tavneos remains an overhang. Amgen submitted additional evidence in July supporting its request for an FDA hearing, but no final decision has been made and the drug remains on the market.
The patent-cliff replacement story strengthened materially in Q2, because growth is broadening faster than legacy products are declining. But MariTide now carries more of the burden for Amgen’s next leg of growth.
4. 🇩🇰 Novo Nordisk: Pill Holds Up
Novo Nordisk’s Q2 sales rose 2% Y/Y (or 3% in constant currency) to DKK 78.5 billion (~$12.1 billion), while adjusted sales grew 7%. The underlying operating profit grew 11% excluding impairments and last year’s DKK 340B distortion.
Oral Wegovy generated DKK 3.2 billion (~$500 million), up 40% sequentially from Q1 and surpassing 5 million prescriptions since launch. The ramp remains impressive, although sales landed slightly below consensus. Injectable Wegovy grew just 1% in constant currency to DKK 19.5 billion, while Ozempic improved 5%.
The competitive picture remains tougher than the pill launch suggests. Novo still expects US sales to decline this year as lower realized prices, reduced Medicaid obesity coverage, and intensifying competition from Lilly pressure the injectable franchise. Meanwhile, CagriSema has produced strong absolute efficacy but failed its key head-to-head obesity endpoint against tirzepatide earlier this year.
Novo nevertheless raised FY26 adjusted sales and operating profit guidance dramatically to flat to -6% in constant currency (from the previous -4% to -12%), driven by stronger US GLP-1 demand and international launches.
Oral Wegovy is giving Novo exactly the boost it needed. But Lilly still has the stronger growth profile and next-generation pipeline, leaving Novo increasingly dependent on the pill and higher-dose Wegovy to close the gap.
5. 💉 Pfizer: Pipeline Questions
Pfizer’s Q2 revenue rose 3% Y/Y to $15.0 billion ($640 million beat), while adjusted EPS was $0.77 ($0.09 beat). The non-COVID portfolio outperformed by roughly $1.5 billion, more than offsetting another sharp pandemic decline. Paxlovid fell 95%, and Pfizer cut FY26 COVID revenue expectations to ~$4 billion from ~$5 billion.
Legacy products did most of the heavy lifting. Eliquis grew 19%, while Vyndaqel remained strong. Oncology also contributed, with Padcev up 23% despite a major Seagen setback: Pfizer took a $3.8 billion impairment (see other expenses) after an experimental lung cancer drug failed a pivotal trial.
The restructuring is getting bigger. Pfizer added another $2.5 billion of expected productivity savings through 2029, bringing total targeted savings to roughly $9.7 billion. That should help protect margins as an estimated $35 billion of revenue faces patent expiration by the end of the decade.
Management raised FY26 revenue guidance by $0.5 billion to $60.5–$62.5 billion and maintained adjusted EPS at $2.80–$3.00 despite absorbing roughly $0.10 from the Innovent transaction. Pfizer agreed to pay $650 million upfront to China-based Innovent Biologics for access to 12 early-stage cancer programs
The core portfolio is performing better than expected, and cost cuts are buying Pfizer more time. But Q2 reinforced the central problem: much of the upside still comes from older drugs, while expensive bets in oncology and obesity have yet to prove they can replace the looming patent cliff.
6. 🌐 Arista Networks: Supply Catches Up
Arista’s Q2 revenue jumped 38% Y/Y to $3.0 billion ($210 million beat), while adjusted EPS was $1.02 ($0.13 beat). Adjusted operating margin reached 50%, above the 46–47% range management had guided to last quarter.
The big change is supply. Arista has secured memory for 2026, expanded manufacturing and distribution capacity, and extended visibility into 2027. Management still expects industry shortages to persist through 2028, but improved availability is finally letting Arista convert more of its backlog into revenue.
AI demand remains exceptional. Etherlink AI fabrics now have more than 100 cumulative customers, up from just 4–5 in 2024. Purchase commitments climbed to $9.7 billion as Arista continues locking in components ahead of future deployments.
Management raised FY26 revenue guidance for the third time this year, now targeting roughly $12.6 billion (+40%), up from $11.5 billion last quarter. It also lifted operating margin guidance to 48–49% from ~46%. Q3 revenue guidance of $3.3 billion came in roughly $350 million above consensus.
Q2 showed supply is starting to close the gap with demand while margins improved. The remaining constraint is no longer customer demand, but how quickly Arista can secure enough components to ship into it.
7. 💾 Sandisk: AI Eats NAND
Sandisk’s Q4 revenue (June quarter) surged 372% Y/Y to $9.0 billion ($0.6 billion beat), while adjusted EPS was $39.25 ($4.73 beat). Non-GAAP gross margin reached an extraordinary 85%, and adjusted free cash flow hit $5.0 billion, a 56% margin. Sandisk repurchased $4.5 billion of stock during the quarter (a questionable decision after a 1,800% stock run-up).
The transformation is being driven by AI infrastructure. Datacenter has gone from 12% of Sandisk’s bits a year ago to 38% exiting FY26 as demand for high-capacity enterprise SSDs explodes. Supply remains the constraint, with management expecting NAND bits to stay on allocation beyond 2027.
More importantly, Sandisk is trying to make that demand durable. It has signed eight multi-year “New Business Model” agreements with data center and edge customers, averaging more than four years and backed by $16.5 billion of financial guarantees. More than half of FY27 bits are already committed, along with roughly two-thirds of FY28 production.
The boom isn’t slowing yet. Q1 FY27 revenue is guided to $10.3–$10.8 billion, implying another ~18% sequential increase at the midpoint, with gross margin holding at 83–85%. EPS of $44–$46 is slightly ahead of consensus, although the revenue midpoint fell short.
Bottom Line: AI has turned NAND from a cyclical commodity into a bottleneck (at least for now). Sandisk is using the shortage to lock customers into multi-year commitments while shifting aggressively toward data center. The question is how much of today’s extraordinary 80%+ gross margin survives once supply eventually catches demand.
8. ☁️ Cloudflare: Agentic Acceleration
Cloudflare Q2 revenue jumped 36% Y/Y to $696 million ($30 million beat), accelerating from 34% in Q1, while adjusted EPS was $0.29 ($0.02 beat). Free cash flow rose 69% to $56 million. Shares jumped nearly 16% after hours as the 20% workforce reduction showed no visible impact on growth.
Large customers (> $100K ARR) grew 27% to 4,698 and now generate 73% of revenue, while DBNR improved to 120% from 118% in Q1. Current RPO grew 35%. The Workers platform added nearly 2 million developers in Q2 alone (twice the Q1 pace), more than Cloudflare added in all of 2025.
Cloudflare is positioning itself as infrastructure for the “agentic internet.” Non-human traffic exceeded human traffic on its network for the first time, and the company is building the tools agents need to interact and transact online, including Wallets and payment rails. Importantly, Cloudflare isn’t trying to compete with hyperscalers by buying enormous GPU clusters. It wants to provide the network, security, and orchestration layer around AI workloads.
Adjusted gross margin improved sequentially to 73%, its first sequential increase in eight quarters, although it remains below Cloudflare’s historical 75%–77% target range. Q2 also absorbed roughly $151 million of restructuring charges tied largely to the workforce reduction.
Cloudflare raised FY26 revenue guidance again to $2.864–$2.870 billion (from roughly $2.81 billion). Q3 revenue guidance of $736–$737 million also landed comfortably above consensus. The agentic-AI pivot is starting to look less like a restructuring narrative and more like a growth catalyst.
9. 🌊 DigitalOcean: AI Accelerates
DigitalOcean Q2 revenue grew 29% Y/Y to $281 million, while non-GAAP EPS was $0.45 ($0.19 beat). Adjusted EBITDA margin remained strong at 40%.
AI is driving the step-up. AI customer ARR surged 212% to $234 million, while ARR from $1M+ customers jumped 214% to $259 million. DigitalOcean added a record $93 million of incremental ARR, nearly triple last year.
The backlog is also exploding. RPO (contracted revenue not yet recognized) increased 12x to $894 million. The new Inference Engine is gaining traction too, with token volume up 30x in its first 60 days.
Capacity is now the main constraint. DigitalOcean has secured roughly 155 MW, with most coming online through 2027. That buildout is weighing on near-term cash flow, with FY26 adjusted FCF margin guided to 11–13%.
DigitalOcean raised FY26 revenue guidance by roughly $37 million to $1.17–$1.18 billion (+30–31%) and expects Q3 growth to accelerate to 32–34%. Management also reiterated confidence in exceeding 50% revenue growth in 2027.
The company’s AI pivot is no longer a side story. Demand is accelerating faster than capacity, and the key execution challenge is bringing enough infrastructure online without sacrificing margins.
10. 🐶 Datadog: AI Concentration Bites
Datadog Q2 revenue rose 36% Y/Y to $1.12 billion ($40 million beat), accelerating again from 32% in Q1, while adjusted EPS was $0.65 ($0.07 beat).
Non-GAAP operating margin reached 23%, and free cash flow was $279 million at a 25% margin. Customers generating more than $100,000 in ARR accelerated 23% Y/Y to 4,720.
Source: Fiscal.ai
Non-AI customers accelerated into the high-20s, up from roughly 18% growth a year ago, while 58% of customers now use four or more Datadog products. AI activity keeps exploding too: calls to Datadog tools through MCP (the standard that lets AI agents interact with software) are up 22x since Q4.
But Q2 exposed the downside of AI concentration. Datadog’s largest customer has begun reducing usage. It’s a leading AI company that uses 17 products and recently signed a nine-figure renewal. Management built that decline into the second-half outlook, despite saying momentum across the rest of the customer base remains strong.
Datadog still raised FY26 revenue guidance to $4.45–$4.47 billion (from $4.30–$4.34 billion) and adjusted EPS to $2.50–$2.54 (from $2.36–$2.44). Q3 revenue guidance of $1.135–$1.145 billion also topped consensus. Yet shares fell about 17% as expectations had moved well ahead of official guidance and investors focused on the large-customer slowdown.
A single AI customer can now meaningfully move the growth curve. The encouraging part is that everything underneath is getting stronger, with non-AI growth approaching 30% and platform adoption deepening. The question for the rest of FY26 is whether that broad-based acceleration can absorb the largest customer’s pullback.
11. ☁️ Atlassian: Enterprise Breakout
Atlassian Q4 revenue (June quarter) rose 28% Y/Y to $1.77 billion ($110 million beat), while adjusted EPS was $1.87 ($0.37 beat). Cloud revenue accelerated again to 31% growth, reaching $1.2 billion, while GAAP operating margin hit 12%. Shares surged more than 30% after earnings.
Atlassian signed its largest enterprise deal ever and set records for $1 million, $3 million, and $5 million annual contract value deals. Customers generating more than $3 million of ARR grew 50%+ Y/Y, while the $5 million cohort grew 70%+. RPO jumped 44% to $4.8 billion, providing much stronger visibility into future revenue.
AI increasingly looks like part of the reason customers are consolidating. Rovo is now used across more than 80% of the Fortune 500, while Atlassian’s Teamwork Graph connects more than 200 billion objects and relationships across Jira, Confluence, and other workflows. That proprietary company context makes its agents more useful than a generic model alone, and customers adopting Rovo are growing ARR at more than twice the rate of non-adopters.
FY27 guidance looks slower at first glance with total revenue growth is expected at ~13%, with Data Center revenue falling 17% as customers migrate to Cloud and last year’s upfront license recognition rolls off. The cleaner forward indicators are 18% subscription ARR growth and 25.5% Cloud growth, with Q1 FY27 Cloud already guided to +28.5%. Atlassian also expects to remain GAAP profitable with a 4.5% operating margin for the year.
FY27 reported revenue growth will look slower as Data Center winds down, but the underlying Cloud and enterprise business enters the year with more momentum than the headline 13% suggests.
12. 📢 HubSpot: Pricing Pivot Bites
HubSpot’s Q2 revenue rose 20% Y/Y to $912 million ($13 million beat), while adjusted EPS was $3.26 ($0.24 beat). Non-GAAP operating margin reached 20%, up roughly 3 points Y/Y. Customers grew 14% to 306,000, while average subscription revenue per customer increased 4%.
HubSpot’s move toward free trials and outcome-based pricing for AI agents extended sales cycles as customers increasingly demanded proof of value before committing. The broader buying environment also became more cautious, with larger committees and more C-suite scrutiny. Calculated billings grew 17% in constant currency, slower than the underlying revenue trajectory.
AI adoption itself remains strong. Prospecting Agent reached nearly 17,000 activated customers, while Data Agent surpassed 16,000 and monthly agentic actions have more than tripled this year. HubSpot is also moving from charging for AI consumption toward charging for outcomes (such as qualified leads or resolved tickets) even if the transition creates near-term revenue friction.
HubSpot cut FY26 revenue guidance by $22 million to $3.678–$3.686 billion, reducing constant-currency growth expectations from 17% to 16%. Q3 revenue of $924–$925 million was also well below the ~$942 million consensus. The company nevertheless maintained a 21% full-year operating margin target and raised adjusted EPS guidance.
AI adoption keeps accelerating, but HubSpot is deliberately accepting slower near-term growth to make its agents easier to try and easier to price. The question is whether that friction produces stronger conversion and reacceleration rather than becoming the new normal.
13. 🎨 Figma: AI Credits Scale
Figma Q2 revenue rose 48% Y/Y to $370 million ($19 million beat), its third straight quarter of accelerating growth, while adjusted EPS was $0.08 ($0.04 beat). Net dollar retention remained strong at 136%.
Shares still fell about 15% after hours. Separately, CEO Dylan Field voluntarily forfeited roughly $46 million of future stock awards without replacement, saying he wanted to reduce dilution during a period of heavy investment.
This was the first full quarter of AI credit monetization. AI usage is broadening across the platform, with roughly 20% of paid-plan credit consumption now coming from Figma Agent. Importantly, adjusted gross margin rebounded 2.5 points Q/Q to 85% despite higher inference spending, easing the margin concern from Q1.
Figma is also pushing beyond design into full-stack creation with Code Layers and its agent in open beta. Those products are not yet consuming paid credits, meaning management has not included their potential contribution in guidance.
FY26 revenue guidance rose another $40 million to $1.463–$1.467 billion, implying 39% growth, while operating income guidance stayed unchanged at $125–$135 million as Figma continues investing behind AI.
14. 🏴 Klaviyo: Agents Gain Traction
Klaviyo Q2 revenue rose 26% Y/Y to $371 million ($8 million beat), while adjusted EPS of $0.19 was in line. Customers above $50,000 in ARR grew 36% to 4,477 and now represent roughly 40% of ARR. NRR was 109%.
Composer launched broadly in June and already has 95,000+ users, with nearly a quarter returning weekly. Customer Agent adoption rose 40% Q/Q, while autonomous resolutions increased nearly 80% since early June. Klaviyo also signed its largest deal ever, an eight-figure multi-product contract.
Gross margin fell three points to 73% as Klaviyo absorbed higher text-message carrier fees, but those costs are now being passed through to customers. FY26 revenue guidance rose to $1.526–$1.534 billion, while operating income guidance fell to $212–$218 million due partly to costs from the Agency acquisition.
Q2 brought the first meaningful evidence that agents could become a real growth lever, with usage scaling quickly and enterprise adoption strengthening.
15. 💬 Twilio: Voice AI Reaccelerates
Sidenote: We are still waiting for the company to issue its 10-Q to craft our signature visual on this one.
Twilio Q2 revenue rose 22% Y/Y to a record $1.5 billion ($70 million beat), with organic growth accelerating to 17% (from 16% in Q1). Adjusted EPS was $1.47 ($0.15 beat), while adjusted operating income reached a record $285 million and free cash flow jumped to a record $353 million.
Source: Fiscal.ai
Dollar-based net expansion improved from 108% a year ago to 116%, comfortably ahead of expectations. Growth came from both messaging and voice, while Twilio continues to benefit from AI-native companies building communication into agents. The company landed an eight-figure deal with a leading AI company and continues to position itself as the model-agnostic infrastructure connecting AI agents with customers across voice and messaging.
Twilio launched a redesigned Console in May that makes it easier for developers to start testing products, with early conversion running more than 90% above the legacy experience. Its new Conversations Layer adds persistent memory and intelligence across interactions, extending the Voice AI opportunity into a broader platform for human and AI-driven customer conversations.
Twilio raised FY26 organic revenue growth to 13%–13.5% (from 9.5%–10.5%), while adjusted operating income and free cash flow are now expected around $1.14–$1.16 billion. Q3 revenue guidance of $1.505–$1.515 billion also came in comfortably above consensus. Twilio is increasingly looking less like a turnaround and more like a renewed growth story.
16. 💻 Paycom: Margins Do the Work
Paycom Q2 revenue rose 10% Y/Y to $531 million ($18 million beat), while adjusted EPS of $2.78 ($0.40 beat). Adjusted EBITDA reached $235 million, with margin expanding 320bps to 44.2%. Net income grew 20% to $107 million.
The improvement was broad-based rather than driven by a one-time product launch. Paycom continues leaning into automation with Project Arc, its largest platform overhaul to date, while July’s new Asset Management product expands the platform into tracking employee devices and equipment. Management says sales pipelines remain strong, though these newer products contributed little to Q2 itself.
Paycom now expects more than $650 million of FY26 free cash flow and repurchased $346 million of stock in Q2. Across the first half, it bought back nearly 11 million shares for $1.4 billion, reducing shares outstanding by roughly 20%.
Paycom raised FY26 revenue guidance to $2.197–$2.212 billion (from $2.175–$2.195 billion), while adjusted EBITDA jumped to $1.007–$1.022 billion (from $950–$970 million). The midpoint EBITDA margin moves to roughly 46% from 44% previously.
Automation, tighter spending, and aggressive buybacks are converting modest growth into substantial EPS and free cash flow expansion. The next step is proving newer products can reaccelerate the top line rather than relying primarily on efficiency.
17. ⚡️ Axon: Dedrone Breaks Out
Axon Q2 revenue rose 35% Y/Y to $904 million ($28 million beat), its tenth straight quarter above 30% growth, while non-GAAP EPS of $1.88 beat by $0.04. Adjusted EBITDA reached $242 million at a 27% margin.
Dedrone surpassed $100 million of quarterly revenue as Platform Solutions surged 123% Y/Y. Management says World Cup security accelerated demand, but expects the opportunity to persist beyond the event. Axon also signed two nine-figure agreements with major cities during the quarter, while future contracted bookings reached a record $15.1 billion.
Software & Services revenue grew 36% to $398 million, ARR accelerated to 39% growth at $1.6 billion, and net revenue retention edged up to 126%. AI Era revenue grew nearly 700%, with more than one-third of software revenue now coming from products beyond the core Evidence platform.
The cost of scaling remains visible. Professional services and newer products pressured software margins, while inventory climbed to $487 million as Axon builds capacity ahead of demand. Memory inflation is expected to pressure Q3 margins before improvement in Q4.
Axon raised FY26 revenue growth guidance again to 32–34% (from 30–32%), while maintaining its 25.5% adjusted EBITDA margin target.
Bottom Line: Counter-drone is rapidly becoming a major product line, AI is scaling alongside it, and contracted demand keeps rising. The constraint has shifted from finding growth to funding and executing against it without sacrificing margins.
18. 🤝 MercadoLibre: Brazil Bet Pays Off
MercadoLibre’s Q2 revenue surged 50% Y/Y to $10.2 billion ($410 million beat), its fastest growth in four years, while GAAP EPS of $9.19 beat by $0.25. GMV jumped 44% to $21.9 billion (+36% FX-neutral), and Mercado Pago TPV crossed $100 billion for the first time, growing 56%.
The Brazil free-shipping strategy is working. MercadoLibre lowered the minimum order value required for free shipping to BRL 19 last year, deliberately subsidizing more low-value purchases to increase frequency and bring new buyers into the ecosystem. One year later, items per buyer are up 19% and conversion improved 1.1 points. Users active across both MercadoLibre and Mercado Pago also grew 37% Y/Y.
Mercado Pago revenue grew 49%, while the credit portfolio surged 75% to $16.4 billion. Credit quality remains healthy despite the growth, with card delinquencies near historical lows.
The trade-off remains margins. Operating margin was just 7%, roughly flat sequentially, as MELI continues pouring money into logistics, credit, seller incentives, and AI. Adjusted free cash flow was only $214 million after $2.1 billion of credit expansion and $441 million of CapEx.
Bottom Line: Commerce, payments, and credit are all compounding faster, and the Brazil shipping investment is changing customer behavior. For now, management is trading margins for long-term growth a la Amazon.
19. 🥡 DoorDash: DashPass Takes Over
DoorDash Q2 revenue rose 36% Y/Y to $4.45 billion ($110 million beat), while GAAP EPS of $0.46 missed by $0.01. Adjusted EBITDA reached $914 million, up 40% and roughly $70 million ahead of consensus.
The underlying economics improved too. Net Revenue Margin held at 13.5%, while contribution profit margin rose to 5.0% of GOV from 4.7% a year ago.
Including the Deliveroo acquisition, total orders grew 27% to 970 million and Marketplace GOV jumped 36% to $33.1 billion.
Excluding Deliveroo, GOV still grew 23%, revenue 24%, and orders 17%, showing the headline growth isn’t just acquisition-driven.
DashPass is increasingly powering the flywheel. Paid membership additions over the past year exceeded the prior two years combined, helping US restaurant growth accelerate from Q1. In grocery and retail, DashPass members now generate roughly 75% of orders as higher frequency and larger baskets deepen DoorDash’s push beyond restaurants. Deliveroo also posted its third consecutive quarter of accelerating order and GOV growth.
New verticals are still expected to turn gross-profit positive in the second half. DoorDash is already reinvesting the gains into autonomous delivery, with its own Dot robots now handling real deliveries in Phoenix, alongside the broader effort to unify DoorDash, Wolt, and Deliveroo onto one technology stack.
Q3 GOV is guided to $33–$34 billion and adjusted EBITDA to $950 million–$1.1 billion, with the profit midpoint comfortably above consensus. The next test is whether new verticals cross into gross profit while DoorDash keeps funding an increasingly ambitious logistics stack.
20. 🇰🇷 Coupang: Customers Return
Coupang’s Q2 revenue rose 4% Y/Y to $8.9 billion, or 10% in constant currency. Excluding a $410 million Korean administrative fine related to the data incident, GAAP EPS was -$0.09. Adjusted EBITDA improved sequentially to $163 million from just $29 million in Q1, but remained well below $428 million a year ago.
Product Commerce revenue grew 8% constant currency to $7.4 billion, with active customers reaching 24.7 million (+3%). Management said most customers who left after the incident have returned, and returning customers are now spending more than before. The remaining gap is concentrated among customers who have yet to come back.
Profitability is recovering more slowly. Product Commerce EBITDA margin was 5.1%, down 3.9 points Y/Y, as Coupang continues to carry network capacity built for pre-incident demand while spending more on customer reacquisition. Management expects margins to return to pre-incident levels by mid-2027 as utilization improves.
Source: Fiscal.ai
Developing Offerings revenue grew 24% constant currency to $1.4 billion, driven by Taiwan, Eats, and Farfetch. Segment losses improved slightly to $219 million, with FY26 losses still expected at $950 million–$1 billion.
Coupang expects Q3 constant-currency revenue growth of 8–9%, with margins still pressured by holiday timing and recovery investments.
Q2 strengthened the case that the data incident caused a temporary demand shock rather than permanent customer damage. The remaining question is how quickly recovering demand can refill Coupang’s network and restore the margins it was generating before the breach.
21. 🥕 Instacart: Customers Come Back
Instacart’s Q2 revenue rose 14% Y/Y to $1.04 billion, slightly ahead of expectations, while adjusted EPS of $0.45 missed by $0.09. GTV accelerated 14% to $10.35 billion, with orders up 9% to 90.3 million and average order value reaching $115.
Instacart is adding new customers at its fastest pace since 2022, while advertising and other revenue grew 16% to $297 million, once again outpacing GTV. Adjusted EBITDA increased 19% to $313 million, or 3.0% of GTV, as the company continues to grow profits faster than transactions.
AI is becoming another demand lever. Instacart is rolling out its AI assistant across North America after early users generated larger-than-average baskets. The company also acquired Arpalus, whose computer vision technology can scan store shelves and improve inventory accuracy, while its enterprise software continues expanding with retailers in the US and Europe.
For Q3, management expects 14% GTV growth at the midpoint and $320–$340 million of adjusted EBITDA, both ahead of consensus, while advertising revenue is expected to grow 15%–18%. The next test is whether AI and enterprise software can extend the acceleration beyond the core grocery marketplace.
22.📦 Etsy: Back to Etsy
Etsy’s Q2 revenue rose 6% Y/Y to $668 million ($22 million beat), while GAAP EPS was $0.98 ($0.25 beat). Adjusted EBITDA increased 15% to $195 million, with margin expanding more than 2 points to 29%.
Etsy GMS grew 8% Y/Y to $2.6 billion, accelerating from 6% in Q1, and still grew 7% in constant currency. Active buyers were roughly flat in the trailing 12 months at 87 million, but GMS per active buyer increased 3% to $124. That suggests the turnaround remains driven more by getting existing buyers to spend more than by expanding the audience.
The company is also getting much simpler. Etsy completed the sale of Depop to eBay after quarter-end for $1.4 billion including adjustments and interest, following last year’s Reverb sale. It then announced a 12% workforce reduction, or roughly 220 roles, aimed at speeding up decision-making, alongside a new $2 billion share repurchase authorization.
GMS accelerated, spend per buyer improved again, and margins expanded. Etsy is now essentially back to being Etsy, with one core marketplace and a leaner organization. The remaining question is whether buyer growth can follow spending higher.
23. 🍞 Toast: Locations Reaccelerate
Toast’s Q2 revenue rose 23% Y/Y to $1.91 billion ($40 million beat), while GAAP EPS of $0.26 beat by $0.06. Adjusted EBITDA reached $221 million, up 37%, and ARR accelerated 25% to $2.4 billion.
The standout was customer growth. Toast added a record 9,500 net locations, up sharply from 7,000 in Q1 and 1,000 above its previous record. Total locations reached roughly 180,000, while GPV grew 22% to $61 billion. Importantly, most of the new adds still came from the core restaurant business, even as enterprise, international, and retail expand the TAM.
Source: Fiscal.ai
AI monetization is also becoming tangible. Toast IQ Grow, its agentic marketing product, is now the fastest-growing product Toast has ever launched and is on track to become its fastest to $10 million in ARR. The roadmap expands from marketing into voice, scheduling, payroll, inventory, and accounting agents.
Toast raised FY26 recurring gross profit growth to 23–25% (from 21–23%) and adjusted EBITDA to $805–$825 million ($145 million raise), even while reinvesting a $10 million tariff refund into growth.
Q1 raised the question of whether location growth was slowing. Q2 answered it with a record quarter. Toast is still adding merchants at scale, while AI is beginning to create a new ARPU growth lever on top of the payments and SaaS flywheel.
24. 🔲 Block: Square Catches Up
Block’s Q2 revenue rose 9% Y/Y to $6.6 billion ($140 million beat), while adjusted EPS was $1.02 ($0.15 beat). Gross profit jumped 25% to $3.2 billion, adjusted EBITDA reached $1.17 billion, and adjusted operating margin hit a record 27%.
Square gross profit also grew 13%, in line with GPV, finally closing the gap between payment volume and monetization. US GPV accelerated to 10%, its fastest growth since Q2 2023, while international remained strong at +28%.
Cash App gross profit grew 31%, with primary banking actives up 17% and consumer lending originations up 59% to $18.9 billion.
Neighborhoods, which connects Cash App consumers with Square sellers, also crossed $1 billion in annualized seller GPV. It’s an early sign that Block’s two ecosystems are starting to reinforce each other.
The AI-driven operating model continues to show up in execution. Code changes per engineer are up 150% since the start of the year, while Block shipped roughly three times as many features in H1 as a year ago.
Block raised FY26 gross profit guidance to $12.51 billion (from $12.33 billion), adjusted operating income to $3.47 billion (from $3.34 billion), and adjusted EPS to $4.02 (from $3.85).
Q2 provided a win on the seller side, while Cash App keeps compounding and margins continue to expand.
25. 💳 Fiserv: Reset Gets Deeper
Fiserv Q2 revenue fell 4% Y/Y to $5.3 billion ($80 million miss), while adjusted EPS of $1.84 missed by $0.08. Organic revenue declined 5%, with Merchant Solutions down 1% and Financial Solutions worsening to -8%. Operating margin fell to 19%, although free cash flow rebounded to $1.1 billion with some help from working-capital timing.
Financial Solutions remains the biggest problem as client implementations take longer than expected, while Clover is dealing with weaker hardware sales after two unusually strong replacement years. Management insists the slowdown is primarily timing rather than lost business, with recurring revenue still growing.
But Fiserv is spending more to fix the underlying platform. New CEO Takis Georgakopoulos is putting an additional $100 million into technology infrastructure and cybersecurity in the second half and has launched a broader portfolio review. Student loan servicing, managed ATMs, and some unprofitable India businesses are already being exited, and management says larger divestitures are on the table.
FY26 organic revenue is now expected at -1% to flat (down from +1–3%), adjusted operating margin at 31–31.5% (versus ~34% previously). Fiserv still maintains its medium-term growth targets. But the burden of proof is now much higher.
26. 🪙 Circle: Arc Hits the P&L
Circle Q2 revenue and reserve income rose 7% Y/Y to $701 million ($12 million miss), while GAAP EPS was $0.18 ($0.02 beat). Reserve income grew just 5% as a 25% increase in average USDC circulation was mostly offset by a 66bp decline in reserve yields to 3.5%.
USDC circulation ended the quarter at $73.3 billion (+19% Y/Y), down from $77 billion in Q1 as the broader crypto market slowed. But underlying usage remained strong: on-chain transaction volume grew 151% Y/Y to $14.8 trillion.
Arc was the main story. Circle roughly doubled FY26 Other Revenue guidance to $310–$330 million (from $150–$170 million), primarily reflecting Arc token sales and milestones. That begins to diversify Circle away from interest income, although Arc-related revenue is not yet the same thing as a recurring software revenue stream.
Circle received final OCC approval for its national trust bank in July, placing institutional custody under direct federal oversight, while Arc’s public mainnet is scheduled for September 16.
Circle maintained its through-cycle target for 40% USDC circulation CAGR.
Q2 exposed the weakness in Circle’s current model, with slower USDC growth and falling rates quickly compressing reserve-income growth. But Arc is starting to provide the diversification investors have been waiting for. The next test is whether its economics evolve from token-related revenue into a durable transaction and infrastructure business.
27. 🏠 Zillow: Growth Without Traffic
Zillow’s Q2 revenue rose 18% Y/Y to $772 million ($14 million beat), while adjusted EPS was $0.52 ($0.07 beat). Adjusted EBITDA reached $176 million, ahead of the ~$161 million consensus, despite $36 million of restructuring and impairment costs.
Rentals remained the standout, growing 31% to $209 million.
Residential revenue rose 7% to $465 million despite the weak housing market.
Mortgages surged 75% as Zillow continues scaling originations.
The problem is traffic: average monthly unique users fell 2% Y/Y to 239 million and visits declined 2% to 2.5 billion.
Management says roughly 80% of traffic still arrives directly, limiting its dependence on search, while AI-powered experiences are getting users to view more homes and contact agents more frequently. The company is also extending Zillow into ChatGPT and Gemini, treating AI platforms as another acquisition channel rather than purely a threat.
The cost structure is getting another reset. Zillow eliminated roughly 500 roles and expanded CFO Jeremy Hofmann’s responsibilities to include COO after Jun Choo stepped down for health reasons. The restructuring comes even as revenue materially outgrows the housing market, suggesting management wants more operating leverage before conditions eventually recover.
Q3 revenue guidance of $745–$760 million fell below the ~$773 million consensus, partly because Zillow now expects mortgage originations to decline rather than remain flat. Full-year revenue is expected at $2.92–$2.96 billion, or roughly 13–15% growth. But can this revenue growth sustain without requiring audience growth?
28. 🏝️ Booking: Travel Holds Up
Booking’s Q2 revenue rose 8% Y/Y to $7.4 billion ($160 million beat), while adjusted EPS increased 15% to $2.54 ($0.11 beat). Room nights grew 5% to 325 million and gross bookings rose 9%, both ahead of guidance. The feared travel slowdown from the Middle East conflict was therefore less severe than expected.
That said, the conflict is still lingering. Elevated airfares and reduced flight capacity continue to pressure long-haul travel, and Booking now expects those indirect effects to persist through Q3. But the accommodation outlook remains largely unchanged, suggesting the weakness is concentrated more in flights than hotels.
Higher-tier Genius members now represent more than 30% of active customers and nearly 60% of room nights, while Connected Trip transactions grew low double digits. Booking also raised expected annual run-rate savings from its restructuring program to ~$650 million from $550 million.
AI remains more optionality than a growth driver today. Traffic from LLMs still represents well below 1% of room nights, while Booking’s own AI tools remain early.
Booking expects Q3 room nights to grow 3–5% and revenue, gross bookings, and adjusted EBITDA to rise 4–6%. FY26 revenue and gross bookings are still expected to grow high single digits.
Overall, Q2 suggests the Middle East conflict interrupted the travel cycle rather than broke it. Accommodation demand remains resilient, but elevated airfares and constrained flight capacity are delaying the recovery management originally expected.
29. 🛖 Airbnb: Hotels Check In
Airbnb Q2 revenue rose 17% Y/Y to $3.6 billion ($30 million beat), while GAAP EPS was $1.37 ($0.12 beat). GBV grew 16% to $27.2 billion, and Nights and Seats Booked accelerated to 10% growth at 148 million, with North America posting its strongest growth in nearly three years. Adjusted EBITDA reached $1.3 billion at a 35% margin.
The hotel expansion is becoming meaningful. Airbnb now has thousands of boutique and independent hotels across more than 20 destinations. Hotels remain a single-digit percentage of nights, but are growing roughly 3x faster than the core homes business and bringing new travelers onto the platform who can later cross over into home rentals. That makes hotels less about competing head-on with Booking and more about widening Airbnb’s top of funnel.
The World Cup helped too. More than 150,000 homes were listed for the first time around the tournament, while major events continue to give Airbnb a repeatable playbook for quickly adding supply. Underneath that boost, product improvements are also showing up. Customer support cost per booking fell 16% Y/Y, and Airbnb is preparing conversational AI search and more personalized trip planning.
Airbnb raised FY26 revenue growth again to at least mid-teens (from low-to-mid teens), while adjusted EBITDA margin guidance increased to at least 35.5% (from 35%). Q3 revenue of $4.69–$4.77 billion also came in above consensus, with Nights and Seats Booked expected to grow low double digits.
30. 🏨 Marriott: US Momentum Holds
Marriott Q2 revenue rose 5% Y/Y to $7.1 billion ($120 million miss), while adjusted EPS increased 20% to $3.19 ($0.11 beat). Global RevPAR grew 3.4%, with US & Canada accelerating further to 5.0% from 4.0% last quarter. International RevPAR fell 0.5% as the Middle East conflict overwhelmed otherwise healthy demand.
The US strength remained broad-based across customer segments and hotel tiers, with luxury RevPAR up 9.1%. Summer travel and the FIFA World Cup provided additional support, while higher room rates drove much of the increase.
Middle East RevPAR plunged 43%, pulling EMEA down more than 5% despite growth in Europe. That was worse than Marriott anticipated last quarter, but strength elsewhere more than offset the hit at the company level.
The other important development is Marriott Bonvoy. Marriott signed new long-term agreements with JPMorgan Chase and American Express for its co-branded credit cards. Marriott earns high-margin fees tied to card spending and royalties for licensing the Bonvoy brand, and these fees were already expected to grow roughly 35% this year before any benefit from the renegotiated deals. The new contracts could therefore provide another leg of fee growth.
Marriott added 17,900 net rooms, while its pipeline reached a record 629,000 rooms, with 44% already under construction. The company raised FY26 global RevPAR guidance to 3.0–3.5% from 2–3% and lifted adjusted EPS to $11.64–$11.81. But Q3 EPS guidance of $2.74–$2.82 came in below consensus, weighing on shares.
The main risk ahead is Marriott’s outsized Middle East exposure, which could continue to create volatility that peers are better insulated from.
31. ✈️ Expedia: Consumer Catches Up
Expedia’s Q2 revenue rose 14% Y/Y to $4.3 billion ($150 million beat), while adjusted EPS was $5.76 ($0.51 beat). Gross bookings grew 12% to roughly $34 billion, well ahead of expectations, and adjusted EBITDA reached $1.1 billion at a 26% margin.
B2B remained the engine, with bookings up 21% and revenue up 23%, its 20th consecutive quarter of double-digit growth. But consumer brands finally joined in with consumer bookings growing 8%, including the fastest US growth in 15 quarters. Vrbo also gained traction, with more than 40% of bookings using partner-funded offers.
Travel demand proved more resilient than feared. APAC rebounded as Middle East disruption eased, while Europe remained pressured by higher airfares and reduced capacity. The FIFA World Cup provided only a modest bookings boost, meaning the underlying strength was broader than the event itself.
Expedia raised FY26 gross bookings growth to 8–9% (from 6–8%), revenue growth to 9–10% (from 6–9%), and adjusted EBITDA margin expansion to 150–175bps (from 100–125bps). Q3 bookings are expected to moderate on tougher comparisons, but the turnaround is becoming less dependent on a single engine.
32. 📱 AppLovin: Model Timing Miss
AppLovin Q2 revenue rose 53% Y/Y to $1.92 billion ($20 million miss), while GAAP EPS was $3.77 ($0.02 beat). Adjusted EBITDA grew 58% to $1.61 billion at an 84% margin, but landed slightly below guidance. Shares plunged more than 20% after hours.
The miss came down to AI model timing. AppLovin had fewer meaningful model improvements during Q2 than usual, with the next major performance upgrade landing just after quarter-end. Because better targeting improves advertiser returns and unlocks more spend, the cadence of model releases can materially move quarterly growth. Management says advertiser demand and competition did not weaken, and Q3 has already reaccelerated.
The consumer expansion is progressing more gradually than the June public launch suggested. AppLovin opened AXON, its AI-powered ad-buying platform, to a broader set of self-serve advertisers in June, but growth today is still coming from a relatively small number of advertisers scaling spend rather than a flood of new customers. Creative remains the biggest onboarding bottleneck, with AppLovin’s GenAI tools not yet able to consistently produce the 30–60 second videos many advertisers need.
AppLovin guided Q3 revenue to $2.06–$2.09 billion and adjusted EBITDA to $1.71–$1.74 billion, both slightly below consensus, while absorbing higher AI compute spending. One major overhang did disappear: the SEC concluded its inquiry with no recommended enforcement action.
Bottom Line: Q2 exposed how lumpy AI model improvements can be, and broad consumer adoption is taking longer than the headline launch implied. The encouraging part is that the delayed model upgrade is already live. Q3 now needs to prove the miss really was timing rather than a lower growth ceiling.
33. 📺 The Trade Desk: Growth Stalls
The Trade Desk’s Q2 revenue grew just 3% Y/Y to $715 million ($36 million miss), its slowest growth since 2020, while adjusted EPS was $0.34 ($0.06 miss). Adjusted EBITDA fell 11% to $241 million, with margin compressing to 34% from 39% a year ago. Shares plunged more than 20% after hours.
Management blamed a mix of macro pressure and its own execution. CPG and auto advertisers (roughly a quarter of the business) remain under pressure from tariffs and weaker consumers, while some brands are shifting budgets toward cheaper fixed-price advertising rather than TTD’s targeting. CEO Jeff Green acknowledged plainly that the company “underperformed our own expectations.”
The direct-to-brand strategy is still showing traction underneath. TTD now has 217 Joint Business Plans with large advertisers, up 38% Y/Y, and revenue tied to those agreements is growing roughly 6x faster than the company overall. International is another bright spot, with EMEA and APAC growing nearly 30% YTD. Green also said the Publicis dispute is now behind the company.
But the Q3 guide is difficult to reconcile with a quick recovery. TTD expects revenue of at least $650 million (versus ~$805 million consensus) and adjusted EBITDA of roughly $160 million. At the $650 million floor, revenue would actually decline about 12% Y/Y versus Q3 FY25. TTD is also rebuilding its senior team, adding a new CFO, CMO, and Chief Commercial Officer in recent months after a string of executive departures. Zuma, a simplified version of Kokai, is designed to address usability complaints and automate more campaign workflows. But the company now has a lot to prove, with few near-term datapoints for investors to lean on.
34. 📌 Pinterest: Growth Speed Bump
Pinterest Q2 revenue grew 18% Y/Y to $1.18 billion ($30 million beat), while adjusted EPS was $0.43 ($0.07 beat). Adjusted EBITDA rose 24% to $311 million, and free cash flow reached $270 million.
MAUs hit another record at 640 million (+11%), marking the 11th consecutive quarter of double-digit user growth.
The advertiser headwind has shifted. Large US retailers were the concern last quarter, but Pinterest now flagged weaker spending from Asia-based cross-border retailers following regulatory actions in Europe. CFO Julia Donnelly said the pressure emerged mid-quarter and is continuing into Q3.
AI remains central to the strategy. Performance+ continues to automate bidding, targeting, and creative, while Pinterest committed $4 billion to AWS through 2031 to support its AI infrastructure. Gen Z remains its largest and fastest-growing cohort at more than half of users.
The main problem is the slowdown ahead. Pinterest guided Q3 revenue to $1.19–$1.21 billion, implying 13–15% growth, roughly in line with consensus. Shares fell as much as 9% after-hours despite the Q2 beat.
Pinterest continues to deliver strong user growth and improving AI monetization, but advertiser concentration keeps creating volatility. Q3 now needs to grow through pressure from cross-border advertisers.
35. 👻 Snap: Reset Starts Working
Snap Q2 revenue rose 19% Y/Y to $1.60 billion ($70 million beat), while GAAP EPS was a loss of -$0.10 ($0.02 beat). Adjusted EBITDA surged more than 500% to $250 million, free cash flow more than quadrupled to $121 million, and net loss narrowed 38% to $164 million. Shares jumped more than 10% after-hours.
The adjusted cost base grew just 4% Y/Y despite much faster revenue growth, while adjusted gross margin reached 59%, just shy of its 60% FY26 target. The 1,000-person layoff announced in April is expected to remove more than $500 million from the annualized cost base by H2.
Advertising revenue grew 9% to $1.28 billion, with management pointing to better performance from large North American advertisers, continued SMB momentum, and broader adoption of AI-powered automation tools. Sponsored Snaps also gained traction across native surfaces. ARPU increased 13% to $3.25.
The faster-growing piece remains direct revenue. Other revenue jumped 85% to $316 million, driven by Snapchat+, Memories Storage, and Lens+.
User growth remained healthy, with DAUs reaching 493 million (+5% Y/Y) and MAUs hitting 971 million. US audience growth was helped by users over 35, broadening Snap's relevance in categories like automotive, healthcare, and financial services.
Snap guided Q3 revenue to $1.70–$1.74 billion, around 12% growth at the midpoint, with adjusted EBITDA of $300–$350 million. The near-term story is becoming less about survival and more about operating leverage.
The AR glasses Specs remain the longer-term bet. CEO Evan Spiegel called the $2,195 AR glasses Snap's "largest long-term opportunity," with launch set for September. That remains highly speculative, but unlike past Spectacles launches, Snap is funding the experiment with a much healthier core business.
36. 🎧 Spotify: 300 Million Paid
Spotify's Q2 revenue rose 14% Y/Y to €4.8 billion, essentially in line, while adjusted operating income surged 61% Y/Y to €655 million. Gross margin hit a record 33.4%, up 190 bps Y/Y, and free cash flow rose 14% to €797 million.
MAUs reached 777 million (+12% Y/Y), while Premium subscribers crossed 300 million for the first time (+9%), with 7 million net adds in the quarter. Spotify's automated channels reached nearly 40% of ad-supported revenue, up from 30% in Q1.
AI spending is rising, but management is increasingly framing it as controllable investment rather than structural margin pressure. Spotify is building its own model-routing infrastructure to lower inference costs while developing more personalized products and higher-priced AI features. Reserved concert tickets with Live Nation have also gained early traction, with nearly 100,000 tickets claimed since June.
The weak spot was guidance. Spotify expects Q3 MAUs of 788 million, below the ~794 million consensus, as it deliberately increases ad load and adjusts the free product in some emerging markets to push users toward paid tiers. Operating income guidance of €670 million also came in slightly light as AI and marketing investments continue.
The near-term tradeoff is deliberate. Spotify is accepting some pressure on free-user growth and margins to increase conversion and build the next generation of AI-powered premium products.
37. 🔥 Match: Tinder Stabilizes
Match Group's Q2 revenue fell 1% Y/Y to $853 million ($4 million miss), while GAAP EPS was $0.70 ($0.05 beat). Adjusted EBITDA grew 14% to $331 million despite the revenue decline.
Tinder revenue fell 1% to $458 million as payers remained under pressure, but engagement improved again. DAUs declined just 4% Y/Y, the best performance in 10 quarters, and management says daily users are close to turning positive for the first time in more than three years. New recommendation algorithms, Double Date, Music Mode, and Tinder's first major rebrand in years are helping retention and engagement.
The main problem is monetization. Match Group payers still fell 6% Y/Y, and Tinder's improving usage has yet to translate into revenue growth. Management now expects Tinder revenue to return to growth in 2027.
Hinge remains the growth engine, with revenue up 22% to $204 million and MAUs up 13%. International expansion continues to work, with European direct revenue up 86% Y/Y.
Source: Fiscal.ai
Match guided Q3 revenue to $885–$895 million, down 2–3% Y/Y, but adjusted EBITDA of $330–$335 million implies another ~10% increase.
Overall, Tinder's product turnaround looks increasingly real, but Q2 exposed the next hurdle: converting better engagement into payers and revenue. Hinge continues to buy Match time while Tinder works through that monetization lag.
38. 🦉 Duolingo: Streak Revival
Duolingo's Q2 revenue rose 18% Y/Y to $298 million ($3 million beat), while GAAP EPS was $0.66 ($0.05 beat).
Bookings grew just 8% Y/Y to $289 million. DAUs grew 23% to 59 million, accelerating from 21% in Q1, and management now expects DAU growth to remain above 20% for the rest of the year.
Source: Fiscal.ai
The top-of-funnel picture improved, but with an asterisk. Duolingo's one-time Streak Revival campaign brought millions of lapsed users back by letting them recover lost streaks, while current-user retention reached an all-time high. Management says those revived users are retaining unusually well, but Q1's concern isn't fully settled yet. The company still needs sustained new-user acquisition, not just better retention and reactivation.
Duolingo is also finding ways to make its AI strategy cheaper. The cost of Video Call has fallen below one cent per session as the company shifts appropriate workloads toward open-source models, allowing the feature to expand from Max into the much larger Super subscriber base. Longer free trials are another experiment aimed at improving both conversion and DAUs without adding monetization friction.
The trade-off remains visible in the outlook. Duolingo maintained roughly 11% FY26 bookings growth and 16% revenue growth, while Q3 revenue of about $302 million came in slightly below consensus. Shares fell more than 10% after hours despite the DAU acceleration. The real test is whether growth stays above 20% once the reactivation campaign rolls out of the comparison.
39. 🗞️ NYT: Subscriber Growth Slows
NYT Q2 revenue rose 11% Y/Y to $762 million ($11 million beat), while adjusted EPS was $0.69 ($0.02 beat). Adjusted operating profit grew 16% to $155 million. Digital subscription revenue increased 16%, while digital advertising remained strong at +21% Y/Y.
The weak spot was subscriber growth. NYT added 280,000 net digital-only subscribers, down from 310,000 in Q1 and below the ~295,000 expected. Total subscribers reached 13.35 million, while digital ARPU increased 3% to $9.94. Management acknowledged that declining search and referral traffic from big tech platforms is making acquisition harder, reinforcing the push toward direct relationships.
Video remains the biggest investment area. NYT is now producing thousands of videos per quarter and launched a dedicated Shows tab, with the ambition to become as relevant for watching the news as it is for reading it. Monetization remains early, however, while operating costs rose 11% on compensation, marketing, and product investment.
For Q3, digital subscription revenue growth is expected to slow to 12–15%, while digital advertising should grow in the mid-to-high teens. Shares fell more than 15% as investors focused on slower subscriber additions and continued spending.
Q2 exposed the challenge of acquiring subscribers as platform traffic declines. Video can reduce that dependence over time, but it needs to prove it can drive engagement before the investment turns into meaningful monetization.
40. 🚲 Peloton: Profit Without Growth
Peloton Q4 revenue was essentially flat Y/Y at $608 million ($11 million beat), while GAAP EPS of $0.13 beat by a penny. Adjusted EBITDA reached $142 million, and Peloton closed FY26 with its first full year of GAAP profitability, generating $63 million of net income and $378 million of free cash flow. Net debt fell to just $123 million from roughly $500 million a year ago.
The problem is still subscribers. Paid Connected Fitness subscriptions fell 9% Y/Y to 2.55 million, while paid App subscriptions also declined 9%. Monthly churn jumped to 2.2% (from 1.2% in Q3 and 1.8% a year ago). Subscription revenue still grew 7% as prior price increases lifted ARPU, but hardware revenue fell 14%.
Peloton is using the stronger financial base to broaden the product. Its Commercial Business Unit grew double digits in FY26, Spotify expands distribution beyond Peloton hardware, and the acquisition of Skōp adds connected Pilates technology as Peloton pushes further into strength and wellness.
FY27 makes the trade-off explicit. Peloton expects revenue of $2.3–$2.4 billion, down ~4% at the midpoint, while adjusted EBITDA rises to ~$500 million (from $468 million in FY26) and gross margin expands another 140bps to 54%. Q1 subscriptions are expected to fall nearly 10% Y/Y.
The next phase of the turnaround is harder. Peloton must prove the business can grow again. FY27 guidance says that probably won't happen yet, with higher margins still being asked to outrun a shrinking subscriber base.
41. 🎮 Sony: Beyond PlayStation
Sony's Q1 revenue rose 8% Y/Y to ¥2.84 trillion (~$17.8 billion), while operating income jumped 40% to ¥477 billion. FX did a lot of work on the top line, because sales actually fell about 1% on a constant-currency basis.
The standout was image sensors, where revenue jumped 26%, and operating income more than doubled (+125%) on stronger mobile sensor sales, better product mix, and FX. Music revenue grew 21% and operating income 14%, with US-dollar streaming revenue up 10% in recorded music and 8% in publishing.
PlayStation was more mixed. Gaming revenue was essentially flat, while operating income rose 37% to ¥202 billion, helped by US tariff refunds and FX. Monthly active users reached a June record of 125 million (+2%), but total playtime declined 4%, and PS5 shipments fell to 1.5 million from 2.5 million. Sony also absorbed higher investment in its next-generation platform and restructuring costs.
That said, things should improve in the second half. Sony raised FY26 PlayStation operating profit guidance by 10% to ¥660 billion, helped by tariff refunds, FX, and cost improvements. Despite surging memory prices, management says it has secured enough memory for planned PS5 volumes and still expects hardware profitability to remain similar to FY25.
Sony also confirmed it will stop producing physical discs for new PlayStation releases starting January 2028, completing the platform's shift toward higher-margin digital distribution despite backlash over ownership and resale.
Sony raised its company-wide FY26 operating income outlook 8% to ¥1.72 trillion and revenue guidance 2% to ¥12.5 trillion. The quarter reinforces Sony's diversification. PlayStation engagement softened, but music and image sensors picked up the slack. The bigger catalyst now shifts to the back half, with a much stronger game slate and continued growth across music and anime.
42. 🎮 Take-Two: GTA VI Preorders Explode
Take-Two Q1 revenue rose 2% Y/Y to $1.53 billion, while GAAP EPS of -$0.18 beat by $0.03. Net bookings fell 3% to $1.39 billion but exceeded guidance, led by better-than-expected NBA 2K and GTA performance. Recurrent consumer spending dipped 1%, including a 7% decline in mobile.
The big story is of course GTA VI. Preorders opened for just five days during the quarter, yet Strauss Zelnick called demand "unprecedented and astonishing," saying Take-Two has never seen anything comparable. The standard edition launches November 19 at $79.99, with the Ultimate edition at $99.99.
Despite that early demand, Take-Two kept FY27 net bookings guidance at $8.0–$8.2 billion, roughly 20% growth, with management unwilling to extrapolate preorder activity into launch sales yet. Q2 bookings are expected at $1.62–$1.67 billion.
Is Take-Two was sandbagging its GTA VI assumptions? The answer it not definitive yet, but "unprecedented" preorders certainly strengthen the case. The company is still keeping expectations anchored before what could be the largest entertainment launch in history. GTA V sold 29 million copies in its first six weeks back in 2023.
43. 📺 Fox: World Cup Windfall
Fox Q4 revenue jumped 28% Y/Y to $4.2 billion ($570 million beat), while adjusted EPS was $1.79 ($0.43 beat). Adjusted EBITDA rose 27% to $1.20 billion. Advertising revenue surged 78% to $1.92 billion as the FIFA Men's World Cup drove huge audiences and premium ad inventory. Fox closed FY26 with record revenue of $17.1 billion and record adjusted EBITDA of $3.9 billion.
The World Cup also worked as a streaming funnel. Tubi revenue accelerated to 35% growth, while FOX One recorded 2.8 million sign-ups in June, its strongest month since launch. Management says retention from World Cup-acquired subscribers has exceeded expectations, suggesting live sports can become an acquisition engine for Fox's direct-to-consumer business rather than simply a linear-TV event.
That matters because Fox is about to make a much larger streaming bet. The planned $22 billion acquisition of Roku would add a major connected-TV distribution and advertising platform alongside Tubi and FOX One. Fox also avoided another potential cost escalation for now: it will not renegotiate its NFL rights agreement early, keeping its current economics in place until the league's opt-out window around the 2030 season.
FY27 gets another cyclical tailwind from the US midterm elections, while management expects the digital portfolio to keep improving as Tubi and FOX One scale. The harder question is whether Fox can turn event-driven spikes like the World Cup into durable streaming engagement before adding Roku's much larger cost base.
44. 🏈 Flutter: FanDuel Needs a Reset
Flutter Q2 revenue grew just 3% Y/Y to $4.3 billion ($90 million beat), while adjusted EPS of $0.49 missed by $0.06. Adjusted EBITDA plunged 45% to $508 million, hit by customer-friendly sports results, higher UK gaming taxes, prediction-market investment, and World Cup marketing.
The US remains the problem. FanDuel revenue fell 6%, including a 15% decline in sportsbook revenue, as the market stayed subdued following last year's unfavorable NFL season and elevated customer churn. Flutter is responding by increasing customer generosity and product investment rather than protecting near-term margins.
The leadership reset also escalated. After FanDuel CEO Amy Howe departed last quarter, Flutter CEO Peter Jackson will now step down on September 30, with Dan Taylor taking over. Taylor was already put in charge of improving FanDuel in May.
International revenue grew 10%, while prediction-market market-making is now expected to contribute about $50 million of FY26 revenue. Early Q3 trading also improved during the World Cup knockout rounds.
Flutter cut FY26 revenue guidance by ~$400 million to $17.91 billion at the midpoint and adjusted EBITDA by ~$210 million to $2.66 billion, partly reflecting another $270 million of deliberate US investment.
While Q1 raised questions about FanDuel's momentum, Q2 confirmed the reset will take longer and cost more. Flutter is choosing to spend through the weakness, while handing the turnaround (and now the entire company) to Dan Taylor.
45. 👑 DraftKings: Predictions Get Expensive
DraftKings' Q2 revenue fell 5% Y/Y to $1.44 billion ($80 million miss), while adjusted EPS of $0.09 missed by $0.10. Adjusted EBITDA dropped to $115 million from $301 million a year ago, also below expectations.
Sports consumer volume still rose 15% to $13.1 billion, and monthly unique payers increased 9% to 3.6 million, slightly ahead of consensus. But customer-friendly sports outcomes and heavier promotions pushed average revenue per payer down 13% to $132. The quarter was a reminder that rising betting volume does not always translate cleanly into revenue.
Predictions is scaling faster than management expected. DraftKings' Super App is now live nationwide, and Robins said Predictions customer behavior increasingly resembles Sportsbook, supporting the company's view that its existing customer base and lifetime-value advantage can help it win the category. The tradeoff is investment: promotions tied to Sportsbook and Predictions were a meaningful drag on Q2 revenue and profitability.
Despite the miss, DraftKings maintained FY26 guidance for $6.5–$6.9 billion of revenue and $700–$900 million of adjusted EBITDA. Management still expects the core business to generate roughly $1 billion of EBITDA before Predictions investment, giving it room to keep spending ahead of football season.
46. 🍟 McDonald's: Value Misfires
McDonald's Q2 revenue rose 4% Y/Y to $7.1 billion ($40 million miss), while adjusted EPS was $3.38 ($0.06 beat). Global comparable sales slowed to 1.3% from 3.8% last quarter, with US comps at just 0.8%. Higher checks kept sales positive, but US traffic declined.
Source: Fiscal.ai
The weakness was partly self-inflicted. McDonald's replaced popular digital deals and Buy One, Add One offers with an under-$3 value menu that was inconsistently executed. Management said those changes explained roughly two-thirds of the US traffic underperformance. Too many simultaneous launches also hurt service times and customer satisfaction.
McDonald's responded by naming Skye Anderson as its new US president and simplifying operations around the new McDonald's > NEXT strategy. The beverage strategy was a bright spot, exceeding expectations, while loyalty sales surpassed $40 billion TTM (+20%).
International held up better, with comps up 1.5% in IOM and 1.9% in developmental markets. McDonald's also pushed its 50,000-restaurant target from 2027 to 2028 as inflation raises development costs.
Q2 looks more like an execution stumble than a demand collapse. The value strategy still matters, but McDonald's made it harder than necessary for customers to see it.
47. 🍔 RBI: Burger King Breaks Out
RBI Q2 revenue rose 5% Y/Y to $2.5 billion (in line), while adjusted EPS was $1.07 beat ($0.03 beat). System-wide sales grew 6.4%, comparable sales accelerated to 3.8%, and adjusted operating income reached $715 million.
Burger King US was again the standout, with comps surging 8.5% Y/Y versus 5.8% in Q1 and roughly 3.5% expected. The brand outperformed the broader US burger category by more than 9 points as four years of remodels, kitchen upgrades, marketing, and value offers under "Reclaim the Flame" increasingly show up in traffic and sales.
The rest of the portfolio was much more mixed. International comps rose 5.5% and system-wide sales grew 10.7%, but Tim Hortons Canada slowed to just 0.1%.
Popeyes improved sequentially but remained weak at -5.2% comps, versus -6.5% in Q1. Management still expects Popeyes to return to positive comps in the second half.
RBI returned $435 million through dividends and buybacks during the quarter and maintained its FY26 target of 8% organic adjusted operating income growth, despite continued beef inflation and a modest FX headwind in the second half. But Burger King and International are increasingly responsible for carrying the portfolio.
48. 🌭 Kraft Heinz: Green Shoots
Kraft Heinz Q2 revenue fell 1% Y/Y to $6.3 billion ($140 million beat), while adjusted EPS was $0.56 ($0.03 beat). GAAP results were distorted by a $7.4 billion non-cash impairment charge, largely reflecting another write-down of goodwill and brand values.
Organic sales fell 1.3%, with 1.3 points of pricing offset by a 2.6% volume/mix decline. The Easter reversal and continued weakness in meats weighed on the quarter.
The trajectory is more encouraging. US consumption declined roughly 2.5% in Q2 but improved to around 1% in July, while recent market-share losses narrowed to roughly 20bps versus 90bps in 2025. Management pointed to early traction in Capri Sun, Mac & Cheese, and parts of the Taste Elevation portfolio.
Profitability remains the tradeoff. Adjusted operating income fell 18% to $1.0 billion as higher advertising, manufacturing inflation, and volume pressure outweighed pricing and productivity. Kraft Heinz is leaning further into the reset, adding another $100 million of mostly marketing investment and bringing FY26 incremental spending to ~$700 million.
The stronger trends prompted Kraft Heinz to raise FY26 organic sales guidance to -0.5% to -2.0% (from -1.5% to -3.5%), despite a ~1-point SNAP headwind. Adjusted EPS is now expected at $2.03–$2.09.
Q2 provided more evidence that consumption and share trends are improving, but Kraft Heinz is spending heavily to get there. The next step is turning those green shoots into volume growth without sacrificing even more margin.
49. ⚡️ Celsius: Alani Carries the Portfolio
Celsius Q2 revenue rose 11% Y/Y to $818 million ($52 million miss), while adjusted EPS was $0.36 ($0.06 miss). Adjusted EBITDA fell 12% to $184 million.
Alani Nu revenue rose 21% Y/Y to $364 million, with retail sales surging 56%.
Rockstar contributed another $66 million following completion of its integration.
Celsius brand revenue fell 12% Y/Y, versus +6% in Q1. Retail sales declined a more modest 2%, with the larger revenue drop reflecting inventory rebalancing, higher promotions, and shipment timing.
Management acknowledged that its SKU cleanup went too far. Celsius aggressively removed weaker flavors while slowing new launches, creating shelf and inventory disruption just as competition intensified. The club channel was another weak spot, with Costco's private-label energy drink putting pressure on sales. Management now expects Celsius brand to remain soft through Q3 before returning to growth exiting 2026.
Margins are also taking longer to recover. Gross margin held at 48%, essentially flat sequentially (but down from 52% a year ago), as aluminum, freight, and promotional spending offset integration benefits. Management now expects margins to remain in the high 40s in Q3, pushing out the Q1 expectation for a more visible second-half recovery.
Q2 showed the portfolio itself is healthy, but the core brand has a real execution problem. Alani is cushioning the blow, yet Celsius now needs to prove its SKU reset and 2027 innovation pipeline can restart growth without sacrificing even more margin.
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That's it for today!
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Author's Note (Bertrand here 👋🏼): The views and opinions expressed in this newsletter are solely my own and should not be considered financial advice or any other organization's views.
Disclosure: I own ANET TEAM DDOG NET HUBS TWLO PAYC AXON MELI DASH CPNG XYZ CRCL TOST ETSY Z ABNB APP TTD SPOT PINS MTCH DUOL PTON FLUT and CELH in App Economy Portfolio. I share my ratings (BUY, SELL, or HOLD) with App Economy Portfolio members.