First Trust Advisors LP Purchases 352,411 Shares of The Trade Desk $TTD

First Trust Advisors LP lifted its position in shares of The Trade Desk (NASDAQ:TTD) by 27.0% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,655,376 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 352,411 shares during the period. First Trust Advisors LP’s holdings in Trade Desk were worth $81,130,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in TTD. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Trade Desk by 27.7% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 56,875,852 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,787,486,000 after buying an additional 12,321,000 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Trade Desk by 52.1% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 12,314,817 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $884,860,000 after acquiring an additional 4,218,975 shares during the last quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. increased its position in Trade Desk by 2.7% in the 2nd quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 8,323,522 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $599,212,000 after acquiring an additional 221,228 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. increased its position in Trade Desk by 22.4% in the 2nd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,386,897 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $243,823,000 after acquiring an additional 618,787 shares during the period. Finally, Barclays PLC raised its stake in shares of Trade Desk by 326.5% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 3,048,438 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $149,404,000 after acquiring an additional 2,333,744 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.77% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently weighed in on TTD. Needham & Company LLC reduced their price objective on shares of Trade Desk from $60.00 to $32.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. Loop Capital lowered Trade Desk from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and lowered their target price for the stock from $75.00 to $25.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. Rosenblatt Securities cut their target price on Trade Desk from $53.00 to $36.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 26th. Weiss Ratings lowered Trade Desk from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 27th. Finally, Citizens Jmp cut Trade Desk from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 23rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, sixteen have given a Buy rating, fifteen have assigned a Hold rating and five have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $43.45.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Kathryn E. Falberg sold 50,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $30.48, for a total transaction of $1,524,000.00. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 10.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Trade Desk Stock Down 2.5%

TTD stock opened at $28.56 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $13.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.73, a PEG ratio of 1.16 and a beta of 1.13. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $30.97 and its 200 day simple moving average is $40.64. The Trade Desk has a 12-month low of $21.08 and a 12-month high of $91.45.

Trade Desk (NASDAQ:TTD) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 25th. The technology company reported $0.59 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.59. The firm had revenue of $846.79 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $840.56 million. Trade Desk had a return on equity of 16.89% and a net margin of 15.31%.The business’s revenue was up 14.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.59 EPS. Research analysts expect that The Trade Desk will post 1.06 earnings per share for the current year.

Trade Desk declared that its board has initiated a share repurchase program on Wednesday, February 25th that allows the company to buyback $350.00 million in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the technology company to repurchase up to 2.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are generally a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Trade Desk News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Trade Desk this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Potential OpenAI partnership could be transformational: reports say TTD is in early talks to help place ads in ChatGPT — a huge ad inventory opportunity if it materializes and would meaningfully expand TTD’s addressable market. OpenAI/ChatGPT ad talks
• Positive Sentiment: CTV push gains traction: The Trade Desk is focusing its CTV platform on premium streaming ad budgets as streaming inventory and video now drive a large portion of revenue — a tailwind if advertisers shift more spend to programmatic CTV. CTV platform targets premium streaming ad budgets
• Positive Sentiment: Product evolution (Kokai) and CEO strategy get bullish coverage: Analysts and media note TTD is reinventing itself from fast-growth challenger to a scaled platform; if Kokai and other initiatives widen its moat, long-term margins and monetization could improve. Reinventing itself analysis
• Neutral Sentiment: Investor-opinion pieces frame TTD as a potential bargain at current levels, but highlight slower growth vs. historical trends — useful context but not new company-specific catalysts. Bargain opportunity piece
• Neutral Sentiment: “Bottom fishing” and strategy write-ups encourage selective buying around CEO commentary, but these are opinion pieces that depend on execution of product roadmap. Bottom fishing analysis
• Negative Sentiment: Large insider selling: Director Kathryn Falberg disclosed sales totaling ~152,828 shares on March 5 at ~\$30.45–\$30.48, reducing her holdings by ~98% — a visible negative signal that can weigh on sentiment. SEC Form 4
• Negative Sentiment: Boardroom change and governance transition: The resignation of board member Gokul Rajaram and related governance moves add uncertainty around oversight and strategy execution during a key transition. Board resignation news
• Negative Sentiment: Analyst caution and recent price pressure: Wedbush reiterated an Underperform, and coverage notes TTD is down sharply over recent months amid tougher macro advertising spending and competition — a factor likely pressuring the stock today. Analyst reiteration

About Trade Desk

The Trade Desk, Inc (NASDAQ: TTD) is a technology company that provides a demand-side platform (DSP) for programmatic digital advertising. Its platform enables advertisers, agencies and other buyers to plan, purchase and measure ad inventory across digital channels, including display, video, mobile, audio, native and connected TV. By centralizing real‑time bidding, audience targeting and inventory access, the company aims to help clients optimize media spend and reach audiences at scale across publishers and ad exchanges.

Founded in 2009 by Jeff Green and Dave Pickles, The Trade Desk grew from a focus on programmatic display into a global ad‑tech provider.