What Happened?
Shares of online reputation and search platform Yext (NYSE:YEXT) jumped 33% in the afternoon session after the company reported an impressive "beat and raise" first quarter 2025 (Q1 FY-26) results, which blew past Wall Street's billings and EBITDA estimates. Sales rose 14% from the previous year, lifted by growing demand from direct customers.
Margins were another bright spot. Gross margin stayed solid, and operating margin flipped into the positive territory as the company cut back on sales and marketing spend. That discipline helped push earnings per share way up from the previous year. Even better, the company lifted its full-year guidance for both earnings and adjusted EBITDA, giving the market more reason to stay optimistic.
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What The Market Is Telling Us
Yext’s shares are somewhat volatile and have had 10 moves greater than 5% over the last year. But moves this big are rare even for Yext and indicate this news significantly impacted the market’s perception of the business.
The biggest move we wrote about over the last year was 6 months ago when the stock dropped 17.9% on the news that the company reported underwhelming third-quarter results. The company did not raise full-year guidance in line with the beats. This implied that the company's expectations for Q4 were below Wall Street's estimates.
On the other hand, Yext blew past analysts' billings expectations. Its EBITDA also outperformed Wall Street's estimates. Zooming out, we think this was a good quarter with some questions about guidance mechanics. The areas below expectations seem to be driving the move.
Yext is up 38.1% since the beginning of the year, and at $9.03 per share, has set a new 52-week high. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of Yext’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $541.74.
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