PubMatic (PUBM) Q3 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

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DATE

Monday, Nov. 9, 2026

CALL PARTICIPANTS

• Co-Founder and CEO – Rajeev Goel
• CFO – Steve Pantelick

TAKEAWAYS

• Revenue — $79.6 million, growing 17% year over year and accelerating for the third consecutive quarter.
• Gross Margin — 70%, reflecting infrastructure optimization and a change in server useful life from three to five years.
• Adjusted EBITDA — $26.0 million, representing a 33% margin and more than doubling year over year.
• CTV Revenue — grew over 30% year over year, reaching 21% of total revenue and led by 40% growth in the Americas.
• Mobile App Revenue — grew nearly 40% year over year, accounting for 27% of total revenue.
• Emerging Revenue Streams — more than doubled year over year to reach 18% of total revenue.
• Activate Buying Activity — grew more than eightfold compared to the previous year, driven by adoption from commerce buyers and independent agencies.
• Agentic Campaigns — 120 fully autonomous campaigns delivered through the platform since Jan. 2, up from 80 in the previous quarter.
• AI-Powered Deals — 14,000 created by publishers to date, automating the packaging and selling of audience inventory.
• Mid-Market DSP Spend — grew more than 40% year over year as buyers utilized platform intelligence for performance.
• Political Revenue — $5.6 million, increasing from $1.1 million in the third quarter of 2025.
• Monetized Impressions — grew 15% year over year, while total gross impressions processed were reduced by 8%.
• Supply Path Optimization — represented 55% of total platform activity.
• Full Year Revenue Guidance — $312 million to $314 million, representing 11% growth at the midpoint.
• Full Year Adjusted EBITDA Guidance — $79 million to $81 million, an increase of 30% year over year at the midpoint.
• Capital Expenditures Guidance — $24 million to $28 million, raised to fund GPU-centric infrastructure.
• Share Repurchase Program — $150 million expansion authorized by the Board through the end of 2028.
• Cash and Marketable Securities — $144.5 million as of Sept. 30, with zero debt.
• Non-GAAP Net Income — $12.6 million, or $0.25 per diluted share.
• Free Cash Flow — $17.6 million, driven by cash provided by operating activities of $30.8 million.

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RISKS

• Pantelick warned that “election spending now has largely disappeared” and noted a historical “period of pause and pacing as advertisers reset the game plan for the fourth quarter seasonality.”
• Pantelick stated that adjusted EBITDA expectations for the fourth quarter assume a “negative foreign currency exchange impact predominantly from Euro and Pound Sterling.”
• Pantelick noted that growth in top ad verticals “helped offset softness in Business, and Food & Drink.”

SUMMARY

PubMatic, Inc. (PUBM +6.85%) reported record third-quarter performance driven by the expansion of high-value channels such as connected TV (CTV) and mobile app environments. Management reported that revenue growth accelerated for the third consecutive quarter, supported by a structural shift toward sell-side decisioning and the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) solutions. The company reported an increase in operational efficiency, expanding its adjusted EBITDA margin through infrastructure optimization and productivity gains from AI integration. Strategic initiatives included the launch of AgenticOS and a new partnership with OpenAI to manage ChatGPT advertising. The company expanded its capital allocation strategy through a share repurchase authorization and raised its full-year capital expenditure forecast to invest in GPU-centric infrastructure.

• CEO Goel noted that the company is at the center of an industry shift where “AI agents are cutting through that complexity, allowing buyers and publishers to transact directly.”
• The company reported that nearly half of platform activity now utilizes sell-side targeting through curated deals and data partnerships.
• Management highlighted a partnership with OpenAI to manage ChatGPT ads, which Goel stated reach “consumers with strong signals and clear intent.”
• CFO Pantelick reported that monetized impressions grew 15% while gross impressions processed fell 8%, illustrating the company’s ability to “reallocate compute towards the products and impressions that created the most value.”
• The company appointed Megan Ramm as Global Chief Revenue Officer to lead a buyer-focused sales team expansion.
• Management reported that all five global agency holding companies have now run Agentic campaigns on the platform.

INDUSTRY GLOSSARY

• AgenticOS: The company’s AI-powered operating system designed for autonomous media planning and buying.
• Activate: A solution that directly connects ad buyers to publisher inventory, bypassing traditional demand-side platform layers.
• Decision Fabric: A solution that allows buyers and technology partners to deploy proprietary decisioning models natively on PubMatic’s infrastructure.
• CTV (Connected TV): Television sets connected to the internet, usually through streaming devices or smart TV platforms.
• DSP (Demand-Side Platform): Software used by advertisers to buy mobile, search, and video ads from a marketplace.
• SSP (Sell-Side Platform): Software used by publishers to automate the sale of advertising space.
• SPO (Supply Path Optimization): Strategies used by buyers to reduce the number of intermediaries in the ad-buying process.
• Sell-Side Decisioning: A structural shift in programmatic advertising where buying decisions are made within the supply-side infrastructure rather than solely in the demand-side platform.

Full Conference Call Transcript

Operator: Hello, everyone, and welcome to PubMatic’s Third Quarter 2026 Earnings Call. My name is Sean, and I’ll be your Zoom operator today. Thank you for your attendance today. As a reminder, this webinar is being recorded. I will now turn the call over to Stacie Clements.

Stacie Clements: Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to PubMatic’s Earnings Call for the third quarter of 2026. This is Stacie Clements, and I’ll be your operator today. Joining me on the call are Rajeev Goel, Co-Founder and CEO; and Steve Pantelick, CFO. Before we get started, I have a few housekeeping items. Today’s prepared remarks have been recorded, after which Rajeev and Steve will host live Q&A. A copy of our press release can be found on our website at investors.pubmatic.com.

I would like to remind participants that during this call, management will make forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, statements regarding our fourth quarter and full year 2026 for revenue, revenue growth with and without political advertising, adjusted EBITDA and margin, and full year capital expenditures, as well as our future performance, free cash flow, the shift to se

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