Here's our initial take on Pinterest's (PINS -1.26%) financial report.

Key Metrics

Metric Q1 2024 Q1 2025 Change vs. Expectations
Revenue $740 million $855 million 16% Beat
Earnings per share (adjusted) $0.17 $0.23 35% Missed
Monthly active users (MAUs) 518 million 570 million 0.1 Beat
Average revenue per user (ARPU) $1.46 $1.52 5% n/a

Excellent User Growth in a Seasonally Weak Quarter

Pinterest entered 2025 with excellent momentum, having reported exceptional user monetization and its highest active user base ever. So it is fair to say that expectations were rather high going into this report.

Well, Pinterest handily beat expectations on the top line, growing revenue 16% year over year. Adjusted earnings per share (EPS) came in a little light, but the overall growth of the business is the real story here.

Looking beyond the headline numbers, one of the most glaring statistics is that Pinterest finished the first quarter with 570 million monthly active users, up 10% year over year.

On the revenue side, Pinterest generated $1.52 per active user during the seasonally weak first quarter, 5% more than a year ago. However, the non-U.S. parts of the user base, which make up 82% of the total and are in the earlier stages of monetization, fared much better. Pinterest's Europe and "rest of world" subsets grew average revenue per user (ARPU) by 17% and 29%, respectively, year over year.

Finally, the company did a great job with cost controls, with most expense categories growing significantly slower than the 16% revenue growth rate. Pinterest generated a 20% adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) margin for the quarter, a 300-basis-point improvement from the first quarter of last year.

Immediate Market Reaction

Unsurprisingly, the immediate market reaction to Pinterest's earnings was a positive one. As of 4:20 p.m. ET on Thursday, about 15 minutes after the earnings release, Pinterest was trading higher by about 11%.

However, keep in mind that this reaction was before management's conference call, which was scheduled for later in the afternoon. It was clearly stated in the earnings report that "we intend to provide further details on our outlook during the conference call," so the stock could certainly move in one direction or another depending on what was said.

What to Watch

Looking ahead, Pinterest anticipates another strong quarter, guiding for $970 million in revenue at the midpoint of the range, significantly higher than the $960.2 million consensus. Keep in mind that the first quarter is seasonally the weakest of the year for Pinterest's business, so this quarter should definitely be the low-water mark.

As the year goes on, I'm watching to see whether the company can sustain 10% year-over-year user growth and can continue to more effectively monetize its non-U.S. users. If it can keep all of these metrics moving in the right direction while keeping expenses under control, Pinterest could have more upside potential ahead of it.

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