• by Wayne Friedman , May 10, 2021

The Trade Desk, the big demand-side platform for media agencies and marketers, posted a strong 37% gain in first-quarter revenue -- but the company warned of uncertainty to come.

As a result, investors were not happy. The company’s stock suffered a massive 26% decline on Monday, closing at $489.60.

The Trade Desk’s first-quarter revenue was $220 million for the period, with net income at $22.6 million -- down 6% versus a year ago. The company warned of potential problems heading into the second quarter.

“Like many companies that are ad-funded, we are facing a period of higher uncertainty in our business outlook. We expect our business performance could be impacted by issues beyond our control, such as changing economic conditions or additional shelter-in-place orders that may or may not occur.”

Among other digital media platforms, the Trade Desk has been aggressively touting future advertising gains as it concerns connected TV advertising-supported platforms.

Although business metrics for the company were strong in the first quarter, some analysts say the significant ad-technology gains were not on the same level as the performance witnessed by other big ad tech-centric companies, such as Roku and Google, in recent results.

The Trade Desk also announced a 10-for-1 stock split during its earnings announcement.