Trustpilot shares plummet as one-offs take shine off earnings growth

Trustpilot Group PLC on Tuesday delivered in-line results but shares fell as a couple of accounting discrepancies took some of the gloss off what it called a "strong" first-half.

The Copenhagen-based consumer review platform said pretax profit rose 32% to USD4.3 million in the half-year to June 30 from USD3.2 million the year prior.

Revenue climbed 23% to USD151.4 million from USD122.8 million, rising 19% at constant currency, and bookings grew 22% to USD171.2 million from USD140.0 million, rising 18% at constant currency. Both figures were in line with company-compiled consensus.

Operating cash flow improved to USD23.2 million from USD220.9 million.

Looking ahead, Trustpilot said it is on track to achieve high-teens constant currency revenue growth for the full year, with two to three percentage points year-on-year adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation margin growth.

In 2025, Trustpilot reported revenue of USD261.1 million and an adjusted Ebitda margin of 15.6%.

Chief Executive Adrian Blair called it a "strong" first half, led by "outstanding momentum in the US and continued strength in the Enterprise customer segment."

However, investors thought otherwise and marked the stock down 17% at 217.20 pence each in London on Tuesday morning. It has risen 8.3% in the last 12 months.

Muddying the waters, Trustpilot said it has taken a USD1 million provision after identifying an exposure where US sales tax had not been applied to certain customer invoices in prior years.

"The prior periods have been restated to reflect management's best estimate of the provision required. This restatement has no impact on underlying current trading, cash flows, adjusted Ebitda or our FY26 financial guidance," the firm stressed.

"To resolve this, appropriate compliance and automated collection systems for ongoing operations are being introduced," the firm added.

In addition, Trustpilot 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 group's consolidated results, net assets or cash position, or on current trading, the firm stressed again.

But Trustpilot said it will need to convene a general meeting to seek shareholder approval to ratify the relevant purchases.

"Overall, 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," commented JPMorgan analyst Joseph George.

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