Trustpilot H1 profit, revenue rise but shares slide on accounting 'missteps'

15th Sep 2026 10:53

(Sharecast News) - Trustpilot posted a rise in first-half profit and revenue on Tuesday and said it was on track to meet full-year guidance, but shares slid as the online review website acknowledged a couple of accounting issues.

In the six months to the end of June, pre-tax profit rose 32% to $4.3m, with revenue up 23% at $151.4m and bookings 22% higher at $171.2m.

Adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation were up 46% to a record $26.3m.

Chief executive Adrian Blair said: "AI is proving a significant tailwind for Trustpilot. As consumers increasingly use AI to discover and evaluate businesses, trusted, independent feedback is becoming even more valuable to businesses. Trustpilot's scale and authority as the #1 cited review platform globally means our content is increasingly visible in AI-generated answers.

"We are innovating at an unprecedented pace to capitalise on this shift and help businesses succeed in the AI-driven world. The recent launch of our refreshed Product Review Pages has given businesses a new layer of AI visibility, and through our expanded partnership with Shopify we are embedding trust data directly into the commerce ecosystem.

"We enter the second half with confidence in our full-year guidance and the long-term opportunity ahead."

Despite the upbeat tone, the shares tumbled as Trustpilot pointed to a $1m provision for historical US sales taxes. The company said it had reassessed its historical US state sales tax positions and identified an exposure where sales tax had not been applied to certain customer invoices in prior years.

Trustpilot also said it recently identified that technical guidance on the determination of distributable reserves was incorrectly applied and that the same issue also affected funding provided by the company to its Employee Benefit Trust to acquire shares for employee incentive arrangements.

This has no impact on the consolidated results, net assets or cash position, or on the company's current trading. However, it will need to convene a general meeting to seek shareholder approval to ratify the relevant purchases.

At 1050 BST, the shares were down 13.9% at 225.40p.

JPMorgan, which rates the stock at 'overweight', said: "We think investors may perceive this release to be slightly noisier than usual, given the number of recent clean 'beat and raises' under the tenure of CEO Adrian Blair.

JPM also said adjusted EBITDA came in around 3% below consensus expectations.

Panmure Liberum, which has a 'hold' rating on Trustpilot, said adjusted EBITDA was "perfectly in line" with its estimate.

"The company has made a couple of missteps, however; firstly, in incorrectly processing US sales taxes for certain invoices, and secondly in incorrectly assessing distributable reserves when repurchasing shares.

"Stepping back, we have long felt that Trustpilot is a maturing business and what's notable is not just that this has occurred but that the company has discovered and disclosed them. This is undoubtedly a speed bump on the company's maturation journey, but it is firmly on that journey."

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