Each investor has good days, unhealthy days, and people which might be simply downright ugly. Yesterday (13 February) was the latter for my SIPP portfolio as one in every of my largest holdings — The Commerce Desk (NASDAQ: TTD) — plummeted 33% in a single day.

Extremely although, the inventory’s nonetheless up 168% over 5 years, displaying how effectively it’s carried out traditionally. Nonetheless, this can be a important setback.

Ought to I purchase extra shares on this monster dip? Let’s have a look.

Uh-oh!

The Commerce Desk’s platform permits programmatic advert shopping for, leveraging information to assist manufacturers and companies attain goal audiences extra effectively. For instance, advertisers use The Commerce Desk to position focused advertisements on platforms corresponding to Spotify or Roku.

The perpetrator for yesterday’s epic drop was the corporate’s fourth quarter. As quickly as I learn the report’s opening line, I had an ‘uh-oh’ second: “The Commerce Desk additionally introduced an extra share repurchase authorisation, bringing the whole quantity of authorised future repurchases to $1bn.“

In my expertise, a share buyback announcement at the beginning of a development firm’s report isn’t a very good omen. It means that administration anticipates a share price sell-off and goals to reassure traders by signalling confidence by buybacks.

My fears have been confirmed 4 sentences later when CEO Jeff Inexperienced added: “While we are proud of these accomplishments, we are disappointed that we fell short of our own expectations in the fourth quarter.” Oh pricey.

The corporate beat earnings’ forecasts however its personal steering was for quarterly income of not less than $756m. It got here up quick, posting $741m.

That may not sound like an enormous deal. However this was the primary time in 33 quarters as a public firm that The Commerce Desk had missed its personal steering. And This fall was the Vacation season/US election, a interval when retailers have been anticipated to double down on promoting.

For the primary time in eight years, we missed the expectations we set, and it was our fault. 

Founder and CEO Jeff Inexperienced, This fall 2024 earnings name.

Softish steering

Administration blamed execution missteps in This fall, leading to slower-than-expected adoption of Kokai, its new AI-powered ad-buying platform. That’s disappointing to listen to, because the agency’s data-driven and must be completely positioned to harness highly effective advances in synthetic intelligence (AI).

Trying forward, it sees income growing by not less than 17% ($575m) in Q1. Whereas sturdy, that’s a slowdown from the 20%+ development charges traders have grown accustomed to.

This highlights how development shares can unload sharply once they don’t stay up to traders’ lofty expectations each single quarter.

My transfer

On account of its excessive development charges, the inventory has at all times been dear. Heading into the print, it was buying and selling at a premium price-to-sales (P/S) a number of of 25. Even after the drop, the P/S ratio’s nonetheless 16.8. The danger with this excessive valuation is that if development slows even additional this 12 months, there may very well be one other sell-off.

Long run although, I stay bullish. The Commerce Desk controls $12bn of advert spend in a $1trn world market. So the chance for additional development is very large.

I’ll see how the corporate will get on this 12 months earlier than committing any additional cash. However for traders wanting publicity to the fast-growing digital promoting market, the inventory may very well be value contemplating after this large dip.