By Adam Levine

Social media company Pinterest reports its fourth-quarter earnings on Thursday afternoon amid a newly announced restructuring plan. It is laying off up to 15% of its employees, and funneling the savings into investing into artificial intelligence tech to drive increased ad revenue, the same way we may be seeing it happen at Meta Platforms.

Wall Street analysts are expecting 67 cents, up from 56 cents last year, on average. Sales are expected to grow by 15%, which represents continued deceleration, to $1.33 billion.

The company's stock is down 28% since the restructuring announcement in late January, with investors taking it as a sign of weakness. "This appears defensive and signals current growth initiatives aren't working and underlying growth isn't supporting the cost base," said James Heaney of Jefferies.

With the layoff savings, Pinterest will likely be hiring pricey AI engineers to facilitate its transformation from online mood boards to an AI-powered shopping assistant, leveraging it for both advertising and e-commerce dollars.

The core part of the new AI tech is a new tool to better automate ad placement on the platform to match what Meta already has. But longer term, the company is also adding features to make Pinterest a first stop for visually oriented e-commerce, like fashion and furnishings.

Pinterest shares tend to trade sharply in either direction after it reports its earnings. In the past 20 quarters, it's moved by an average of nearly 13% the next day. The biggest move was last quarter, when the stock saw a 22% decline.

Write to Adam Levine at adam.levine@barrons.com

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February 12, 2026 12:48 ET (17:48 GMT)

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