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NIQ Global IntelligenceB
NYSE / Media & Entertainment
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2026-08-12
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Earnings documents stored for NIQ.

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Investor releaseQuarter not tagged2026-08-12

NIQ Global (NIQ) Soars 42% After Earnings. What’s Next?

Insider Monkey
NIQ Global Intelligence PLC (NYSE:NIQ) saw its share price soar by 42 percent on Tuesday to close at $16.58 after beating its estimates in the second quarter and raising its growth outlook for the full year. In an updated report, the consumer intelligence firm said that it raked in $1.124 billion in revenues for the period, marking an 8 percent jump from the $1.04 billion in the same period last year, and beating its earlier expectations of $1.103 billion to $1.107 billion. The intelligence business segment accounted for the largest chunk at $905.3 million, up 7.6 percent year-on-year, while activation revenues amounted to $218.9 million, or growth of 9.9 percent from the same period last year. Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko on Pexels Adjusted EBITDA, on the other hand, finished 21.9 percent higher at $261.9 million versus $214.9 million year-on-year, also well above its previous guidance of $242 million to $246 million. The company, however, widened its attributable net loss by more than 1, Adjusted EPS stood at $0.27, beating expectations of $0.19 to $0.21. Encouraged by the strong results, NIQ Global Intelligence PLC (NYSE:NIQ) raised its growth expectations for the full-year period. Revenues are now targeted to grow between 7.1 percent and 7.4 percent year-on-year to a range of $4.496 billion to $4.510 billion. This compares with its previous expectations of 6.4 to 6.7 percent growth at $4.466 billion to $4.479 billion. Adjusted EBITA is also expected to end at $1.057 billion to $1.076 billion, or a jump from the $1.05 billion to $1.067 billion outlook previously. Adjusted EPS is projected at $1.08 to $1.12, versus $0.95 to $0.99 prior. In the third quarter alone, NIQ Global Intelligence PLC (NYSE:NIQ) expects revenues to grow by 5 percent to a range of $1.105 billion to $1.108 billion, while adjusted EBITDA is projected to jump by 15 to 17 percent to a range of $255 million to $261 million. EPS is pegged at $0.22 to $0.24, versus a loss per share of $0.03 in the same period last year. Following the results, the company has earned a price target upgrade from three investment firms, namely UBS, RBC Capital, and Deutsche Bank. UBS alone raised its price target to $17 from $15, while maintaining a buy recommendation, while RBC Capital increased its target to $17 from $13 while assigning an outperform rating. Deutsche Bank, for its part, hiked its target to $1…Read full document

NIQ Global Intelligence PLC (NYSE:NIQ) saw its share price soar by 42 percent on Tuesday to close at $16.58 after beating its estimates in the second quarter and raising its growth outlook for the full year. In an updated report, the consumer intelligence firm said that it raked in $1.124 billion in revenues for the period, marking an 8 percent jump from the $1.04 billion in the same period last year, and beating its earlier expectations of $1.103 billion to $1.107 billion. The intelligence business segment accounted for the largest chunk at $905.3 million, up 7.6 percent year-on-year, while activation revenues amounted to $218.9 million, or growth of 9.9 percent from the same period last year. Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko on Pexels Adjusted EBITDA, on the other hand, finished 21.9 percent higher at $261.9 million versus $214.9 million year-on-year, also well above its previous guidance of $242 million to $246 million. The company, however, widened its attributable net loss by more than 1, Adjusted EPS stood at $0.27, beating expectations of $0.19 to $0.21. Encouraged by the strong results, NIQ Global Intelligence PLC (NYSE:NIQ) raised its growth expectations for the full-year period. Revenues are now targeted to grow between 7.1 percent and 7.4 percent year-on-year to a range of $4.496 billion to $4.510 billion. This compares with its previous expectations of 6.4 to 6.7 percent growth at $4.466 billion to $4.479 billion. Adjusted EBITA is also expected to end at $1.057 billion to $1.076 billion, or a jump from the $1.05 billion to $1.067 billion outlook previously. Adjusted EPS is projected at $1.08 to $1.12, versus $0.95 to $0.99 prior. In the third quarter alone, NIQ Global Intelligence PLC (NYSE:NIQ) expects revenues to grow by 5 percent to a range of $1.105 billion to $1.108 billion, while adjusted EBITDA is projected to jump by 15 to 17 percent to a range of $255 million to $261 million. EPS is pegged at $0.22 to $0.24, versus a loss per share of $0.03 in the same period last year. Following the results, the company has earned a price target upgrade from three investment firms, namely UBS, RBC Capital, and Deutsche Bank. UBS alone raised its price target to $17 from $15, while maintaining a buy recommendation, while RBC Capital increased its target to $17 from $13 while assigning an outperform rating. Deutsche Bank, for its part, hiked its target to $15 from $14, but maintained a more conservative “hold” rating. Hedge funds noticeably reduced their exposure in the company in the first quarter of the year. Based on data from Insider Monkey, 24 hedge funds held positions in NIQ Global Intelligence PLC (NYSE:NIQ) during the period, down from 26 in the quarter prior. More importantly, their combined holdings fell by 29 percent to $281 million from $397.5 million, signaling a more cautious stance. As the said figures predated the company’s latest earnings report, the next round of filings could therefore provide an interesting read on institutional positioning, particularly whether hedge funds increased their exposure following the earnings beat and higher growth outlook. While we acknowledge the potential of NIQ as an investment, we believe certain AI stocks offer greater upside potential and carry less downside risk. If you're looking for an extremely undervalued AI stock that also stands to benefit significantly from Trump-era tariffs and the onshoring trend, see our free report on the best short-term AI stock. READ NEXT: 33 Stocks That Should Double in 3 Years and Cathie Wood 2026 Portfolio: 10 Best Stocks to Buy. Disclosure: None. Follow Insider Monkey on Google News.

Investor releaseQuarter not tagged2026-08-11

NIQ Global Intelligence Plc Q2 2026 Earnings Call Summary

Moby
Our analysts just identified a stock with the potential to be the next Nvidia. Tell us how you invest and we'll show you why it's our #1 pick. Tap here. Achieved fifth consecutive quarter exceeding guidance, driven by a broadly healthy client demand environment and structural advantages in proprietary data assets. Accelerated organic constant currency revenue growth to 5.8%, supported by 10 consecutive quarters of 5% plus growth and strong retention rates of 105% NDR. Successfully consolidated market share in the U.S. and EMEA by displacing incumbents through the 'Full View' value proposition and advanced AI product roadmaps. Expanded adjusted EBITDA margins by 270 basis points, with roughly half of the improvement attributed to AI-led productivity gains across data operations and engineering. Leveraged a defensible data engine comprising 160 petabytes and 4.3 trillion weekly transaction records to move up the AI value chain from informing to executing decisions. Completed the vast majority of the 2026 restructuring program in the first half, realizing structural efficiency gains with less than a one-year payback period. Strategic acquisition of YiMian strengthens digital commerce capabilities in China and Southeast Asia, accelerating the roadmap for agentic commerce measurement. Raised full-year 2026 guidance across all metrics, reflecting first-half momentum and a positive outlook for core business and AI-driven efficiencies. Designated 2026 as a foundation-building year for AI, focusing on early adoption and partnership validation, with commercial scaling expected in 2027 and beyond. Anticipates reaching a sub-3x net leverage target by year-end 2026 through disciplined capital allocation and inflecting free cash flow. Planned launch of agentic commerce measurement and Product Intelligence offerings to capture value as AI influences consumer shopping and transaction execution. Guidance for the second half assumes approximately $300 million in levered free cash flow generation, supported by improved working capital and lower interest expense. Incurred $36 million in one-time restructuring and transformation costs in Q2, with legacy NIQ and GfK initiatives continuing to roll off as planned. Identified a $75 million cost-to-achieve target for the 2026 restructuring program, with the majority of remaining cash outlays expected in the second half of the year. N…Read full document

Our analysts just identified a stock with the potential to be the next Nvidia. Tell us how you invest and we'll show you why it's our #1 pick. Tap here. Achieved fifth consecutive quarter exceeding guidance, driven by a broadly healthy client demand environment and structural advantages in proprietary data assets. Accelerated organic constant currency revenue growth to 5.8%, supported by 10 consecutive quarters of 5% plus growth and strong retention rates of 105% NDR. Successfully consolidated market share in the U.S. and EMEA by displacing incumbents through the 'Full View' value proposition and advanced AI product roadmaps. Expanded adjusted EBITDA margins by 270 basis points, with roughly half of the improvement attributed to AI-led productivity gains across data operations and engineering. Leveraged a defensible data engine comprising 160 petabytes and 4.3 trillion weekly transaction records to move up the AI value chain from informing to executing decisions. Completed the vast majority of the 2026 restructuring program in the first half, realizing structural efficiency gains with less than a one-year payback period. Strategic acquisition of YiMian strengthens digital commerce capabilities in China and Southeast Asia, accelerating the roadmap for agentic commerce measurement. Raised full-year 2026 guidance across all metrics, reflecting first-half momentum and a positive outlook for core business and AI-driven efficiencies. Designated 2026 as a foundation-building year for AI, focusing on early adoption and partnership validation, with commercial scaling expected in 2027 and beyond. Anticipates reaching a sub-3x net leverage target by year-end 2026 through disciplined capital allocation and inflecting free cash flow. Planned launch of agentic commerce measurement and Product Intelligence offerings to capture value as AI influences consumer shopping and transaction execution. Guidance for the second half assumes approximately $300 million in levered free cash flow generation, supported by improved working capital and lower interest expense. Incurred $36 million in one-time restructuring and transformation costs in Q2, with legacy NIQ and GfK initiatives continuing to roll off as planned. Identified a $75 million cost-to-achieve target for the 2026 restructuring program, with the majority of remaining cash outlays expected in the second half of the year. Noted that while AI initiatives are progressing, the raised 2026 outlook does not assume a material revenue contribution from these new monetization models yet. Management highlighted ongoing monitoring of the Middle East conflict, though performance in the region remains solid despite the macro backdrop. One stock. Nvidia-level potential. 30M+ investors trust Moby to find it first. Get the pick. Tap here. Connect AI targets 'AI Builders' who want to embed NIQ intelligence directly into their own enterprise workflows and LLMs. Revenue will be driven by dedicated engineering services, permissioned service layers, and the proprietary 'NIQ decoder' IP. The pipeline has grown to 49 live opportunities, including charter clients like Purina and global beverage companies. Activation growth of 6.1% is driven by low double-digit demand for analytics and innovation-based solutions like BASES AI. APAC returned to growth (1.9%) following improved retailer relationships and coverage enhancements in China, Japan, and Korea. Management expects the momentum in high-margin analytics to continue as clients seek faster decision-making tools. NIQ is establishing infrastructure to measure the 'share of prompt' and 'share of discovery' within AI-driven shopping agents. The strategy involves tracking the entire funnel from AI recommendation accuracy to final transaction conversion. This represents a new, strategic demand pool beyond traditional CPG marketing budgets.

Investor releaseQuarter not tagged2026-08-11

NIQ Global Intelligence PLC (NIQ) (Q2 2026) Earnings Call Highlights: Revenue Growth ...

GuruFocus.com
This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Organic Constant Currency Revenue Growth: Accelerated to 5.8% in Q2 2026. Reported Revenue: Grew 8% to $1.1 billion. Adjusted EBITDA: Grew 21.9% year-over-year to $262 million. Adjusted EBITDA Margin: Expanded 270 basis points to 23.3%. Adjusted EPS: $0.27, above the top end of guidance. Levered Free Cash Flow: Inflected positive to $74.1 million. Net Leverage Ratio: Improved to approximately 3.1 times. Intelligence Revenue Growth: Re-accelerated to 5.7%. Annualized Intelligence Subscription Revenue: Grew 5.8% to exceed $3 billion. Activation Revenue Growth: Accelerated to 6.1%. Net Dollar Retention (NDR): Strong at 105%. Gross Dollar Retention (GDR): Strong at 99%. AI Native Solutions Revenue: Grew 34% in Q2. Americas Segment OCC Growth: Led the way, growing 8.3%. EMEA Segment OCC Growth: Accelerated to 4.9%. APAC Segment OCC Growth: Returned to 1.9% growth. Americas Adjusted EBITDA: Grew 10.5% to $143 million, with margins of 31.4%. EMEA Adjusted EBITDA: Grew 26.1% to $179 million, with margins expanding 550 basis points to 35.3%. APAC Adjusted EBITDA: Increased 9.2% to $32 million, with margins expanding 120 basis points to 19.8%. Adjusted Net Income: Improved by $80.3 million to positive $78.7 million. Net Loss: $30.5 million. Cash Flow from Operations: $140.1 million. Capital Expenditures: $66 million. Full-Year 2026 Adjusted EBITDA Growth Guidance: Raised to 15% to 17%. Full-Year 2026 Adjusted EPS Guidance: Raised to $1.08 to $1.12. Full-Year 2026 Levered Free Cash Flow Guidance: Raised to $245 million to $255 million. Warning! GuruFocus has detected 2 Warning Sign with NIQ. Is NIQ fairly valued? Test your thesis with our free DCF calculator. Release Date: August 10, 2026 For the complete transcript of the earnings call, please refer to the full earnings call transcript. NIQ Global Intelligence PLC (NYSE:NIQ) delivered its fifth consecutive quarter of exceeding top-end guidance, with organic constant currency revenue growth accelerating to 5.8% and adjusted EBITDA growing nearly 22%. The company's AI-native solutions are gaining traction, with revenue from these offerings growing 34% in Q2 and over 80% of that revenue coming from recurring clients, indicating strong stickiness. NIQ Global Intelligence PLC (NYSE:NIQ) is seeing strong demand across new and adjacent markets, including wins in ad tech and retail me…Read full document

This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Organic Constant Currency Revenue Growth: Accelerated to 5.8% in Q2 2026. Reported Revenue: Grew 8% to $1.1 billion. Adjusted EBITDA: Grew 21.9% year-over-year to $262 million. Adjusted EBITDA Margin: Expanded 270 basis points to 23.3%. Adjusted EPS: $0.27, above the top end of guidance. Levered Free Cash Flow: Inflected positive to $74.1 million. Net Leverage Ratio: Improved to approximately 3.1 times. Intelligence Revenue Growth: Re-accelerated to 5.7%. Annualized Intelligence Subscription Revenue: Grew 5.8% to exceed $3 billion. Activation Revenue Growth: Accelerated to 6.1%. Net Dollar Retention (NDR): Strong at 105%. Gross Dollar Retention (GDR): Strong at 99%. AI Native Solutions Revenue: Grew 34% in Q2. Americas Segment OCC Growth: Led the way, growing 8.3%. EMEA Segment OCC Growth: Accelerated to 4.9%. APAC Segment OCC Growth: Returned to 1.9% growth. Americas Adjusted EBITDA: Grew 10.5% to $143 million, with margins of 31.4%. EMEA Adjusted EBITDA: Grew 26.1% to $179 million, with margins expanding 550 basis points to 35.3%. APAC Adjusted EBITDA: Increased 9.2% to $32 million, with margins expanding 120 basis points to 19.8%. Adjusted Net Income: Improved by $80.3 million to positive $78.7 million. Net Loss: $30.5 million. Cash Flow from Operations: $140.1 million. Capital Expenditures: $66 million. Full-Year 2026 Adjusted EBITDA Growth Guidance: Raised to 15% to 17%. Full-Year 2026 Adjusted EPS Guidance: Raised to $1.08 to $1.12. Full-Year 2026 Levered Free Cash Flow Guidance: Raised to $245 million to $255 million. Warning! GuruFocus has detected 2 Warning Sign with NIQ. Is NIQ fairly valued? Test your thesis with our free DCF calculator. Release Date: August 10, 2026 For the complete transcript of the earnings call, please refer to the full earnings call transcript. NIQ Global Intelligence PLC (NYSE:NIQ) delivered its fifth consecutive quarter of exceeding top-end guidance, with organic constant currency revenue growth accelerating to 5.8% and adjusted EBITDA growing nearly 22%. The company's AI-native solutions are gaining traction, with revenue from these offerings growing 34% in Q2 and over 80% of that revenue coming from recurring clients, indicating strong stickiness. NIQ Global Intelligence PLC (NYSE:NIQ) is seeing strong demand across new and adjacent markets, including wins in ad tech and retail media, demonstrating its data's value beyond traditional CPG. The company is making significant progress on its AI roadmap, launching products like Optiq Bridge and ConnectAI, and has built a pipeline of 49 live opportunities for its ConnectAI services. NIQ Global Intelligence PLC (NYSE:NIQ) is achieving substantial operational efficiencies through AI, which contributed roughly half of the 270 basis points of year-over-year margin expansion in Q2. The company raised its full-year 2026 guidance across all key metrics, including adjusted EBITDA, EPS, and free cash flow, reflecting strong performance and a positive outlook. NIQ Global Intelligence PLC (NYSE:NIQ) is successfully deleveraging, reducing its net leverage ratio to 3.1 times and on track to achieve its sub-3 times target by year-end. The company's core business remains robust, with 10 consecutive quarters of 5%-plus organic constant currency growth and strong retention rates (105% NDR and 99% GDR). NIQ Global Intelligence PLC (NYSE:NIQ)'s APAC region returned to growth but at a modest 1.9% OCC, lagging other regions and indicating a slower recovery in that market. The company's net loss of $30.5 million in Q2 was primarily due to lower foreign currency gains compared to the prior year, highlighting ongoing FX volatility impacts. NIQ Global Intelligence PLC (NYSE:NIQ) incurred significant one-time restructuring costs of approximately $36 million in Q2, with more cash outlays expected in the second half of the year. The company's AI monetization strategy is still in its early stages, with management noting that 2026 is a foundation-building year and that AI initiatives will not materially contribute to 2026 revenue. NIQ Global Intelligence PLC (NYSE:NIQ) faces ongoing competitive pressures, as evidenced by the need to win back clients from competitors in various regions, including APAC and EMEA. The company's guidance implies a significant sequential jump in Q4 adjusted EPS, which may be subject to execution risks and seasonal fluctuations. While margins are expanding, the company's path to its mid-20s target and beyond into the 30s is dependent on continued AI-driven efficiencies, which are still being realized and may not be fully predictable. The integration of the YiMian acquisition and other tuck-in M&A adds execution complexity and may divert management attention from core operations. Q: How sustainable are the growth rates in Activation and Intelligence, and how much of the growth was pulled forward from earlier in the year?A: CFO Mike Burwell noted that both Intelligence (5.7%) and Activation (6.1%) saw strong growth, with momentum expected to continue. He highlighted that e-commerce and consumer panel services are growing at over 30%, and that APAC improved to 1.9% growth in Q2. With 80% of the business under three-to-five-year contracts, the company sees these growth rates as durable and driven by win-backs and cross-selling. Q: Can you help visualize what ConnectAI is building for clients and how it gets monetized?A: CEO Jim Peck explained that clients need NIQ's data, models, and integration know-how embedded in their own environments. Chief AI and Product Officer Troy Treangen added that ConnectAI services target AI builders (e.g., chief data officers) with dedicated engineers and data scientists. The pipeline has grown to 49 live opportunities, and the charter phase is about proving value and hardening a repeatable model, with monetization expected to scale in 2027. Q: How should we think about the link between the 25% year-over-year growth in data point consumption and revenue growth?A: CEO Jim Peck stated that data consumption is a measure of client relevance and engagement. As clients consume more granular data, they see better results, driving deeper usage and expansion. He expects this high double-digit consumption trend to continue, as it reflects clients' insatiable demand for NIQ's data, which is increasingly combined with their own proprietary assets. Q: Are you seeing a shift in client budgets toward data-based and agentic commerce solutions, and how is that translating into new wins?A: Jim Peck confirmed a shift, noting the hiring of Irina Stoian from Palantir to address demand for "forward-deployed engineers." Troy Treangen added that these conversations involve new budgets from chief data and technology officers, not traditional market research teams. This represents untapped demand and a completely different client base, enabling multiple workflows across client organizations. Q: How is AI augmenting the data estate itself, and is it enabling you to gather more information and attributes?A: Troy Treangen explained that AI is a core strategy across four buckets: premium AI-ready data solutions (collecting and coding data faster), services that harmonize and enrich data, applications like Optiq Bridge and Cadence, and AI-deployed engineers. AI allows NIQ to expand the breadth and depth of product attributes and characteristics, which in turn improves the accuracy of AI tools for correlations and causations. Q: What drove the strong margin expansion in EMEA, and is that margin profile structurally higher than other regions?A: CFO Mike Burwell attributed the 550 basis point margin improvement in EMEA to effective cost management in the company's largest market. He noted that roughly half of the overall 270 basis point margin expansion came from restructuring and transformation actions, with the other half from revenue growth on a largely fixed cost base. Some timing benefits in Activation costs also contributed in Q2. Q: How much of the guided free cash flow is absorbed by one-time cash restructuring payments, and how should we think about cash flow into 2027?A: Mike Burwell confirmed that the full-year guidance of $245 million to $255 million includes the restructuring payments. He stated that the NIQ/GfK integration is largely behind them, and the 2026 program has a less than one-year payback. While it's difficult to quantify 2027 precisely, the company will continue to evaluate efficiency opportunities, and not all actions carry one-time costs. Q: What percentage of data is available for MCP consumption, and what does the pricing model look like?A: Troy Treangen stated that Optiq Bridge, the MCP product, is in beta with primarily US data, with a full launch in early September. Releases throughout the rest of the year will add global retail measurement and consumer panel data. Jim Peck added that pricing models are being experimented with, including consumption-based options, and will be refined as they learn from charter clients. Q: Can you explain the agentic commerce measurement product and how you will collect data when consumers shop agentically?A: Troy Treangen explained that agentic commerce is an emerging channel that NIQ will measure like any other. The product will track share of prompt, share of discovery, share of accuracy, clicks, and ultimately conversion. More details on this product will be released later this year. Q: Is the retailer monetization opportunity changing, given the value exchange model historically?A: Jim Peck confirmed that the opportunity is changing. Retailers are seeing the value of NIQ's product characteristics and consumer insights as they build their own agentic commerce strategies. Conversations are becoming more strategic than transactional, driving deeper penetration with both large and mid-sized retailers, and expanding beyond the traditional data barter model. For the complete transcript of the earnings call, please refer to the full earnings call transcript.

Investor releaseQuarter not tagged2026-08-11

NIQ Global Intelligence Q2 Earnings Call Highlights

MarketBeat
Interested in NIQ Global Intelligence plc? Here are five stocks we like better. NIQ exceeded second-quarter guidance, reporting 5.8% organic constant-currency revenue growth, 21.9% adjusted EBITDA growth, a 270-basis-point margin expansion to 23.3%, and $74.1 million in levered free cash flow. Growth was broad-based, led by the Americas and stronger APAC performance, while intelligence revenue extended its streak of above-5% growth and activation revenue accelerated. AI-native revenue rose 34%, with adoption expanding among major clients. The company raised its 2026 outlook to 5.2%–5.6% organic revenue growth, 15%–17% adjusted EBITDA growth, $1.08–$1.12 adjusted EPS, and $245–$255 million in levered free cash flow, while targeting year-end net leverage below three times. NIQ Global Intelligence (NYSE:NIQ) reported second-quarter 2026 results that exceeded the top end of its guidance across key metrics, led by 5.8% organic constant-currency revenue growth, a 21.9% increase in adjusted EBITDA and a 270-basis-point expansion in adjusted EBITDA margin to 23.3%. Executive Chairman and CEO Jim Peck said the quarter marked NIQ’s fifth consecutive period of outperforming its guidance across major measures. Adjusted earnings per share reached $0.27, while levered free cash flow turned positive at $74.1 million. The company ended the quarter with net leverage of approximately 3.1 times, down from 3.4 times at the end of the first quarter. → SoundHound AI Sends a Loud Signal After Its Q2 Earnings Beat NIQ raised its full-year 2026 outlook, citing first-half outperformance, favorable foreign exchange effects and the contribution of its YiMian acquisition, an e-commerce data and insights business operating in China and Southeast Asia. Second-quarter reported revenue rose 8% to $1.1 billion. The company said growth was driven by retention, pricing, cross-selling and upselling across both its intelligence and activation offerings. → Take-Two’s Q1 Results Leave GTA 6 Bulls Stuck in the Fog of War The Americas led regional performance with 8.3% organic constant-currency growth, while EMEA accelerated to 4.9%. APAC returned to growth, rising 1.9% on the same basis, which management described as a meaningful sequential improvement from the first quarter. Peck cited several client wins and expansions, including a U.S. coffee manufacturer that consolidated work with NIQ from two…Read full document

Interested in NIQ Global Intelligence plc? Here are five stocks we like better. NIQ exceeded second-quarter guidance, reporting 5.8% organic constant-currency revenue growth, 21.9% adjusted EBITDA growth, a 270-basis-point margin expansion to 23.3%, and $74.1 million in levered free cash flow. Growth was broad-based, led by the Americas and stronger APAC performance, while intelligence revenue extended its streak of above-5% growth and activation revenue accelerated. AI-native revenue rose 34%, with adoption expanding among major clients. The company raised its 2026 outlook to 5.2%–5.6% organic revenue growth, 15%–17% adjusted EBITDA growth, $1.08–$1.12 adjusted EPS, and $245–$255 million in levered free cash flow, while targeting year-end net leverage below three times. NIQ Global Intelligence (NYSE:NIQ) reported second-quarter 2026 results that exceeded the top end of its guidance across key metrics, led by 5.8% organic constant-currency revenue growth, a 21.9% increase in adjusted EBITDA and a 270-basis-point expansion in adjusted EBITDA margin to 23.3%. Executive Chairman and CEO Jim Peck said the quarter marked NIQ’s fifth consecutive period of outperforming its guidance across major measures. Adjusted earnings per share reached $0.27, while levered free cash flow turned positive at $74.1 million. The company ended the quarter with net leverage of approximately 3.1 times, down from 3.4 times at the end of the first quarter. → SoundHound AI Sends a Loud Signal After Its Q2 Earnings Beat NIQ raised its full-year 2026 outlook, citing first-half outperformance, favorable foreign exchange effects and the contribution of its YiMian acquisition, an e-commerce data and insights business operating in China and Southeast Asia. Second-quarter reported revenue rose 8% to $1.1 billion. The company said growth was driven by retention, pricing, cross-selling and upselling across both its intelligence and activation offerings. → Take-Two’s Q1 Results Leave GTA 6 Bulls Stuck in the Fog of War The Americas led regional performance with 8.3% organic constant-currency growth, while EMEA accelerated to 4.9%. APAC returned to growth, rising 1.9% on the same basis, which management described as a meaningful sequential improvement from the first quarter. Peck cited several client wins and expansions, including a U.S. coffee manufacturer that consolidated work with NIQ from two incumbent providers, and a global convenience retailer that expanded its renewal into SKU-level analytics, pricing and promotion, and category management across more than a dozen countries. The latter expansion added more than $5 million of incremental value, according to the company. → 3 Dividend Champion Utilities for a Market That Can't Sit Still NIQ’s intelligence revenue grew 5.7% organically in constant currency, its 10th straight quarter above 5% growth. Annualized intelligence subscription revenue increased 5.8% and exceeded $3 billion. The company reported net dollar retention of 105% and gross dollar retention of 99% in the quarter. Activation revenue grew 6.1% organically in constant currency, accelerating for a second consecutive quarter. Analytics and innovation-based offerings accounted for nearly 60% of year-to-date activation revenue and grew at a low-double-digit rate, management said. During the question-and-answer session, CFO Mike Burwell said e-commerce and consumer panel offerings were each growing at rates above 30%, contributing to intelligence growth. He also said demand for analytics offerings, including the company’s BASES AI Screener, remained strong. Management emphasized AI as both a product-growth opportunity and a source of operational efficiency. Revenue from AI-native solutions grew 34% in the second quarter, and more than 80% of that revenue came from recurring clients, Peck said. About 51% of NIQ’s top 100 clients now use at least one AI-native solution, while the total number of clients using those offerings increased 64% year to date. The company introduced or advanced several AI-related products, including the Optiq Suite of insight assistants, NIQ Cadence marketing-effectiveness platform, Optiq Bridge and Connect AI Suite. Peck said these offerings are designed to embed NIQ intelligence into customers’ AI-powered workflows and enterprise environments while retaining NIQ’s underlying methodologies, models and permission layers. Connect AI has 49 live opportunities in its pipeline, including charter clients and active discussions, according to management. The initial charter-client group includes Purina, a global personal hygiene company, a beauty company and two global beverage companies. Troy Treangen, NIQ’s Chief AI and Product Officer, said each charter client receives dedicated engineers and data scientists to integrate NIQ intelligence into its workflows. Treangen also said Optiq Bridge, which is designed for model context protocol, or MCP, consumption, was in beta and expected to launch in full product mode in early September. The initial data availability is primarily U.S.-focused, with additional releases planned through the rest of the year to add global retail measurement and consumer panel data. NIQ plans to launch an agentic commerce measurement product later this year. Treangen said the offering is expected to measure the emerging channel along with metrics including share of prompt, share of discovery, accuracy, clicks and conversion. Peck said the company expects its AI initiatives to generate some revenue in 2026, but the increased full-year outlook does not assume a material contribution from those products. NIQ expects to begin scaling the initiatives commercially in 2027 and beyond. Adjusted EBITDA rose to $262 million in the quarter. Burwell said roughly half of the 270-basis-point margin improvement stemmed from restructuring actions and other productivity efforts, with the remainder coming from revenue growth against what he described as a largely fixed cost base. NIQ completed the vast majority of actions under its 2026 restructuring program during the first half and expects $70 million to $80 million in run-rate savings. The company said the program is tracking toward a $75 million cost-to-achieve target, with less than a one-year payback. One-time restructuring costs totaled approximately $36 million in the second quarter, including $15 million related to the 2026 program. Burwell said the company incurred $20 million of related cash outlays during the first half and expects most of the remaining payments to occur in the second half. Cash flow from operations was $140.1 million, compared with a use of $80.6 million in the year-earlier period. Capital expenditures totaled $66 million, reflecting investments in AI capabilities, technology platforms and data assets. NIQ ended June with $417 million in cash and cash equivalents and approximately $1.2 billion in total available liquidity, including revolver capacity. For the third quarter, NIQ forecast reported revenue growth of approximately 4.9% to 5.3% and organic constant-currency growth of 5.2% to 5.5%. The company expects adjusted EBITDA growth of 15% to 17%, adjusted EBITDA margin of 23% to 23.5%, and adjusted EPS of $0.22 to $0.24. For the full year, NIQ raised its outlook to: Reported revenue growth of 7.1% to 7.4%. Organic constant-currency revenue growth of 5.2% to 5.6%. Adjusted EBITDA growth of 15% to 17%. Adjusted EBITDA margin of 23.5% to 23.9%. Adjusted EPS of $1.08 to $1.12. Levered free cash flow of $245 million to $255 million. Net leverage below three times by year-end. Peck said NIQ is focused on maintaining core growth while expanding its AI capabilities, improving operating efficiency and continuing to deleverage its balance sheet. Nuveen Intermediate Duration Quality Municipal Term Fund is a close ended fixed income mutual fund launched by Nuveen Investments Inc The fund is co-managed by Nuveen Fund Advisors LLC and Nuveen Asset Management, LLC. It invests into public fixed income markets of the United States. The fund seeks to invest in stocks of companies that are operating across diversified sectors. It primarily invests in municipal securities that are exempt from federal income taxes, and seeks to maintain a portfolio with an intermediate effective duration of between 3 and 10 years, including the effects of leverage. This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to [email protected]. The article "NIQ Global Intelligence Q2 Earnings Call Highlights" was originally published by MarketBeat. View MarketBeat's top stocks for August 2026.

Investor releaseQuarter not tagged2026-08-10

NIQ Announces Strong Second Quarter 2026 Results

Business Wire
Exceeded Revenue, Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EPS guidance Delivered 8.0% reported revenue growth, including 5.8% organic constant currency ("OCC") growth, led by 8.3% Americas OCC growth Generated 5.7% Intelligence OCC growth and 6.1% Activation OCC growth; Annualized Intelligence Subscription revenue eclipsed $3 billion Net loss attributable to NIQ was $30.5 million and Adjusted net income improved to $78.7 million, for Adjusted EPS of $0.27 Grew Adjusted EBITDA by 21.9% to $261.9 million and expanded Adjusted EBITDA margin by 270 bps to 23.3% Improved Unlevered free cash flow by $107.3 million and Levered free cash flow by $137.3 million to $74.1 million Raised full year 2026 financial guidance to 5.2% - 5.6% OCC revenue growth, 23.5% - 23.9% Adjusted EBITDA margin and $245M - $255M of levered free cash flow Achieved credit rating upgrade to B+ from B on improved cash generation from S&P Global Ratings CHICAGO, August 10, 2026--(BUSINESS WIRE)--NIQ Global Intelligence plc (NYSE: NIQ) (the "Company", or "NIQ"), a leading global consumer intelligence company, today announced financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2026. Second Quarter 2026 Results Revenue: Total revenue grew 8.0% year-over-year to $1,124.2 million. OCC revenue increased 5.8%, led by Americas, which grew 8.3%. EMEA delivered 4.9% growth while APAC returned to year-over-year growth, up 1.9%. Intelligence revenue (as reported) grew 7.6%, or 5.7% in OCC. Activation revenue growth (as reported) grew 9.9%, or 6.1% growth in OCC. Annualized Intelligence Subscription revenue grew 5.8% to $3,017.6 million with 105% Intelligence Subscription Net Dollar Retention and 99% Gross Dollar Retention. Earnings: Net loss attributable to NIQ was $30.5 million and Adjusted net income improved to $78.7 million. Adjusted EBITDA grew 21.9% year-over-year to $261.9 million. Adjusted EBITDA margin expanded by 270 basis points year-over-year to 23.3%. Net cash provided by operating activities was $140.1 million, a $148.7 million improvement year-over-year. Unlevered free cash flow improved by $107.3 million to $129.1 million year-over-year. Levered free cash flow improved by $137.3 million to $74.1 million year-over-year. Improvement was driven by year-over-year increases in revenue flowing through to Adjusted EBITDA, net working capital improvement and lower interest expense from our debt pay down i…Read full document

Exceeded Revenue, Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EPS guidance Delivered 8.0% reported revenue growth, including 5.8% organic constant currency ("OCC") growth, led by 8.3% Americas OCC growth Generated 5.7% Intelligence OCC growth and 6.1% Activation OCC growth; Annualized Intelligence Subscription revenue eclipsed $3 billion Net loss attributable to NIQ was $30.5 million and Adjusted net income improved to $78.7 million, for Adjusted EPS of $0.27 Grew Adjusted EBITDA by 21.9% to $261.9 million and expanded Adjusted EBITDA margin by 270 bps to 23.3% Improved Unlevered free cash flow by $107.3 million and Levered free cash flow by $137.3 million to $74.1 million Raised full year 2026 financial guidance to 5.2% - 5.6% OCC revenue growth, 23.5% - 23.9% Adjusted EBITDA margin and $245M - $255M of levered free cash flow Achieved credit rating upgrade to B+ from B on improved cash generation from S&P Global Ratings CHICAGO, August 10, 2026--(BUSINESS WIRE)--NIQ Global Intelligence plc (NYSE: NIQ) (the "Company", or "NIQ"), a leading global consumer intelligence company, today announced financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2026. Second Quarter 2026 Results Revenue: Total revenue grew 8.0% year-over-year to $1,124.2 million. OCC revenue increased 5.8%, led by Americas, which grew 8.3%. EMEA delivered 4.9% growth while APAC returned to year-over-year growth, up 1.9%. Intelligence revenue (as reported) grew 7.6%, or 5.7% in OCC. Activation revenue growth (as reported) grew 9.9%, or 6.1% growth in OCC. Annualized Intelligence Subscription revenue grew 5.8% to $3,017.6 million with 105% Intelligence Subscription Net Dollar Retention and 99% Gross Dollar Retention. Earnings: Net loss attributable to NIQ was $30.5 million and Adjusted net income improved to $78.7 million. Adjusted EBITDA grew 21.9% year-over-year to $261.9 million. Adjusted EBITDA margin expanded by 270 basis points year-over-year to 23.3%. Net cash provided by operating activities was $140.1 million, a $148.7 million improvement year-over-year. Unlevered free cash flow improved by $107.3 million to $129.1 million year-over-year. Levered free cash flow improved by $137.3 million to $74.1 million year-over-year. Improvement was driven by year-over-year increases in revenue flowing through to Adjusted EBITDA, net working capital improvement and lower interest expense from our debt pay down in Q3 2025 and a spread step-down in Q4 2025. "Our second quarter results underscore the strength of NIQ's mission-critical role with global retailers and manufacturers, as we delivered our fifth consecutive quarterly beat since becoming a public company", said Jim Peck, Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. "Both Intelligence and Activation OCC revenue growth accelerated, margins expanded by 270 basis points and free cash flow inflected positive. We see a healthy client demand environment and we are moving aggressively to capture significant AI opportunities. From launching our next wave of AI-powered capabilities Optiq, Bridge and Cadence, to engaging our ConnectAI Charter Program clients and growing pipeline, to strengthening our AI leadership team and partnerships, we are rapidly building powerful new ways for clients to capitalize on NIQ's proprietary, AI-ready intelligence. In doing so, we believe we are unlocking significant long-term revenue growth potential for NIQ." "We are pleased to deliver another quarter of strong results that exceeded the top end of our guidance", added Mike Burwell, Chief Financial Officer. "Our raised full year 2026 outlook reflects Q2 outperformance as well as an ongoing healthy client demand environment. For the balance of 2026, we anticipate continued durable revenue growth, strong margin expansion and approximately $300 million of levered free cash flow generation in the second half of 2026 alone." Summary Second Quarter 2026 & Recent Business Highlights Key client developments, including: Closed 26 seven-figure wins, including three eight-figure deals, across new wins, renewals, upsells and competitive win-backs with clients citing NIQ's integrated "Full View" breadth and demonstrable data quality and strategic advice Delivered strong continued cross-sell including mid-teens percent Consumer Panel growth and eCommerce growth above 30% Expanded Retailer relationships & offerings: Reinforced APAC growth strategy: Named 2026 Snowflake Retail & Consumer Goods Product Partner of the Year for helping clients transform fragmented data into trusted, AI-ready intelligence, powering faster decisions and measurable growth Client Net Promoter Score (NPS) increased to all-time high of 52 in June 2026, up +7 points versus June 2025 AI-native product launches from NIQ Commerce Lab, including: ConnectAI Suite, NIQ’s data and AI infrastructure foundation, designed to help organizations operationalize trusted market intelligence across enterprise AI environments and workflows through harmonization, semantic intelligence, APIs and AI-ready integrations. Connected Content & Product Intelligence – A unified, intelligent content layer that helps brands and retailers manage, activate and optimize product information across commerce ecosystems Optiq Suite (Chat & Mobile), an AI-powered insights assistant and agent experience available on NIQ Discover built to address key client persona use-cases across Account Performance, Pricing, Distribution and Shopper Analysis Optiq Bridge – Designed to connect NIQ intelligence directly into enterprise AI ecosystems, agents and workflows NIQ Cadence – GenAI-native Marketing Effectiveness operating system intended to help marketers continuously measure, optimize and activate performance Announced a strategic collaboration with Lula Commerce, an AI-powered ecommerce platform built to help convenience retailers launch and scale digital commerce experiences more quickly and easily using trusted content Grew our AI-powered Connect data engine at approximately 4.3 trillion data records per week, up 23% versus a 3.5T add rate in Q2 2025 AI-enabled cost efficiency, including: Ongoing integration of advanced technology, including AI, continues to support the Company's 2026 Restructuring Program, which remains on track to deliver anticipated annualized cost savings of approximately $70 million to $80 million (refer to "2026 Restructuring Program" discussion below) Financial Summary & Operating Metrics Second Quarter 2026 Segment Results Second Quarter Revenue Discussion Revenue increased 8.0% on an as-reported basis, while OCC revenue grew 5.8%. Our Q2 OCC growth was driven primarily by value‑based pricing as well as strong upselling and cross‑selling of new capabilities and solutions, and, to a lesser extent, penetration in adjacent and high‑growth markets. Americas: Total Americas segment revenue (as reported) increased by $49.1 million, or 12.1%. Intelligence revenue (as reported), grew 10.6% driven by strong client retention, value-based pricing and continued demand for new capabilities and solutions, including Consumer Panel and eCommerce offerings. Activation revenue (as reported) grew 17.9%, reflecting strong demand for Analytics, Innovation and Retailer Analytics solutions, as well as ongoing cross-sell and upsell activity across the client base. Inorganic items contributed an additional 0.8% to reported growth, while foreign exchange contributed 3.0%. OCC growth was 8.3%. EMEA: Total EMEA segment revenue (as reported) increased by $30.9 million, or 6.5%. Intelligence revenue (as reported), grew 7.5% driven by value-based pricing, strong renewal activity and continued adoption of new capabilities and solutions, including Omnishopper and eCommerce offerings. Activation revenue (as reported) grew 1.2%, reflecting continued client demand for Analytics and Innovation solutions. Foreign exchange contributed 1.6% to reported growth. OCC growth was 4.9%. APAC: Total APAC segment revenue (as reported) increased by $3.4 million, or 2.2%, driven by a 10.2% increase in Activation revenue (as reported), reflecting stronger demand for Analytics and Innovation solutions and improving commercial momentum across the region. Intelligence revenue (as reported) decreased 0.5%, reflecting a meaningful sequential improvement from Q1, driven by continued penetration of adjacent high-growth markets and expanding retailer partnerships. Foreign exchange contributed 0.3% to reported growth. OCC growth was 1.9%. Liquidity, Capital Resources & Recent Financings As of June 30, 2026 the Company had cash and cash equivalents of $416.6 million and $747.5 million of available capacity under its Revolver, for a total of $1,164.1 million of available liquidity. For the six months ended June 30, 2026, cash provided by operating activities was $76.5 million, compared to cash used in operating activities of $162.2 million in 2025, a $238.7 million improvement, primarily driven by year-over-year improvements in Adjusted EBITDA, net working capital and interest expense, offset by increased year-over-year restructuring expense. For the six months ended June 30, 2026, cash used in investing activities was $125.0 million, compared with $66.7 million in 2025. For the six months ended June 30, 2026, cash paid for capital expenditures was $125.6 million, compared with $117.3 million in 2025. Cash paid for capital expenditures as a percentage of revenue represented 5.7% and 5.8%, respectively, for the six months ended June 30, 2026 and 2025. For the six months ended June 30, 2026, cash used in financing activities was $45.7 million, compared with cash provided by financing activities of $204.3 million in 2025. Free cash flow for the six months ended June 30, 2026 increased by $230.4 million compared to the six months ended June 30, 2025 driven primarily by year-over-year increases in revenue flowing through to Adjusted EBITDA, net working capital improvement and lower interest expense as a result of 2025 IPO proceeds being used to pay down debt and a spread step-down beginning in Q3 2025, offset by the impact of increased year-over-year restructuring costs. The average unhedged and hedged interest rates at the end of the second quarter of 2026 were 4.8% and 5.4%, respectively, which resulted in a total weighted average rate of 5.0%. The convergence of the all-in rates is due to the lower spreads post refinancing and the declining interest rate environment. Our interest rate hedging program is intended not only to provide protection against dramatic interest rate increases but also to allow us to participate meaningfully in an improving interest rate environment with greater predictability of cash flows. Reorganization Pursuant to IPO On July 22, 2025, in connection with the IPO, NIQ became the direct parent of various entities that were created by Advent International to acquire the business of NIQ from Nielsen Holdings, including AI PAVE Dutchco I B.V. ("AI PAVE") and the indirect parent of other intermediate holding companies, including AI PAVE Dutchco II B.V., AI PAVE Dutchco III B.V. (collectively, with AI PAVE, the "AI PAVE Entities"), and Intermediate Dutch Holdings B.V., a private company with limited liability organized under the laws of the Netherlands ("Dutch Holdings") (the "Reorganization"). All holders of equity interests in AI PAVE became shareholders of NIQ. The "Company," "NIQ," "we," "us" and "our" means, prior to the Reorganization, Dutch Holdings and its consolidated subsidiaries and, after the Reorganization, NIQ Global Intelligence plc and its consolidated subsidiaries. Prior to the effects of the Reorganization and IPO, the unaudited consolidated financial statements present the historical financial information of Dutch Holdings. Subsequent to the Reorganization and IPO, the financial statements were recast to reflect the consolidated financial statements of NIQ Global Intelligence plc and its consolidated subsidiaries, including Dutch Holdings and the AI PAVE Entities, as a transaction between entities under common control. The recast presentation is effective for the financial statements as of and for the earliest periods presented. All subsequent reporting periods, including the accompanying consolidated financial statements herein, will similarly reflect the recast presentation. 2026 Restructuring Program In February 2026, the Company approved an incremental cost realignment program (the "2026 Program") intended to further streamline the organization and drive operational efficiency. The 2026 Program is designed to generate additional annualized cost savings of approximately $70 million to $80 million by the end of fiscal year 2026. The 2026 Program supports the Company’s ongoing efforts to enhance margin performance through continued optimization of its workforce, enhancements to its sales organization and other support functions and simplification of overall business processes. Investments in automation and artificial intelligence ("AI") are anticipated to accelerate the Company’s optimization efforts as it begins its journey to operationalize these digital tools throughout the organization. Collectively, these actions are expected to improve efficiency, customer satisfaction, product innovation and productivity. The 2026 Program is intended to further reduce costs primarily within selling, general and administrative expenses. The Company expects to incur total pre-tax restructuring charges of approximately $65 million to $75 million, the substantial majority of which would result in cash expenditures. The Company expects that execution of the 2026 Program will occur primarily in the first half of 2026, subject to local laws and consultation requirements. As of year-to-date fiscal 2026, the Company has incurred approximately $70 million of restructuring charges associated with the 2026 Program. Third Quarter and Full Year 2026 Outlook Our outlook is based on a number of assumptions that are subject to change, many of which are outside of the control of the Company. The extent to which external factors affect our business and results of operations are inherently uncertain and depends on numerous evolving factors that we may not be able to accurately predict. There can be no assurance that the Company will achieve the results expressed by this guidance. Third quarter & Full year 2026 guidance ranges (except for OCC revenue) include the YiMian acquisition completed on June 30, 2026. Full year 2026 free cash flow guidance range implies $300 million of free cash flow in the second half of 2026. Constant currency growth rates assume foreign currency exchange rates are consistent between years. This allows financial results to be evaluated without the impact of fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates. Organic constant currency growth rates are constant currency growth excluding inorganic growth. Inorganic growth represents growth attributable to the first twelve months of activity for recent business acquisitions. Refer to the "Non-GAAP Financial Measures" section of this Earnings Release regarding reconciliations of the above non-GAAP financial measures. Earnings Webcast Information In conjunction with this release, NIQ will host a conference call and webcast today at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time to discuss business results for the quarter and certain forward-looking information. The live webcast and a replay of the webcast will be available at the Investor Relations section of NIQ’s website: investors.nielseniq.com. About NIQ (NYSE: NIQ) NIQ is a leading consumer intelligence company, delivering comprehensive understanding of consumer buying behavior and helping clients identify new pathways to growth. Our global reach spans 90 countries covering approximately 82% of the world’s population, more than half of global gross domestic product, and more than $7.4 trillion in global consumer spend as of December 31, 2025. With a holistic retail read and comprehensive consumer insights—delivered with advanced analytics through state-of-the-art platforms—NIQ delivers the Full View™. For more information, please visit www.niq.com. Availability of Information on NIQ’s Website Investors and others should note that NIQ routinely announces material information to investors and the marketplace using SEC filings, press releases, public conference calls, webcasts and the NIQ Investor Relations website. While not all of the information that the Company posts to the NIQ Investor Relations website is of a material nature, some information could be deemed to be material. Accordingly, the Company encourages investors, the media and others interested in NIQ to review the information that it shares on investors.nielseniq.com. Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains "forward-looking statements." These forward-looking statements generally can be identified by references to future periods or the use of words such as "intend," "designed," "anticipate," "expect," "plan," "could," "may," "will," "would," "believe," "estimate," "forecast," "goal," "outlook," "guidance," "position," "envision," "predict," "target," "potential," "should," "continue," "contemplate," "project," and other words of similar meaning. These forward-looking statements address various matters including financial guidance and projected estimates including expectations regarding revenue, leverage, Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA margin, Adjusted EPS and free cash flow; statements about the Company’s financial position, operating results, liquidity and capital allocation priorities, including growth-focused capital expenditures, investments in AI capabilities, potential tuck-in acquisitions, share repurchases or other return of capital and the future availability and use of our Revolver and other financing arrangements; statements regarding the 2026 Restructuring Program and the Transformation Program, including expected annualized cost savings, anticipated pre-tax restructuring charges, timing and execution of realization, expected improvements in efficiency, customer satisfaction, product innovation and productivity; and statements regarding expected annualized cost savings and timing of realization, anticipated one-time charges and cash expenditures, the Company’s ability to achieve margin expansion, improve operating efficiency and generate future cash flow, the impact of technology-enabled initiatives including automation and AI on long-term competitiveness, including expectations that AI will strengthen the Company's competitive position, widen its competitive moat, accelerate innovation and structurally lower its cost base; the development, launch, capabilities, adoption, monetization and expected client benefits of new products and solutions; the contribution of new or expanded partnerships to future results; the Company's interest rate hedging strategy and its expected impact on cash flow predictability, and the Company’s strategic priorities and future financial performance. Each forward-looking statement contained in this press release is subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statement. Applicable risks and uncertainties include, among others, the workforce reduction may take longer or result in more significant charges or cash expenditures than anticipated or otherwise negatively impact the Company and its business plans during and after the period during which the workforce reduction is being executed; that we derive a significant portion of our revenues from sales of our subscription-based products; if we are unable to attract and retain members of our management team, we may not be able to compete effectively and will not be able to expand our business; that design defects, errors, failures or delays associated with our products or services could negatively impact our business; that we rely on third parties to provide certain data, services and information technology and operations functions in connection with the provision of our current products and services; that we have identified material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting; uncertainty in the U.S. political and regulatory environment; if we are unsuccessful at investing in growth opportunities, our business could be materially and adversely affected; that the market for consumer measurement and business solutions products and services is highly competitive; if we cannot compete effectively, our revenues could decline and our business could be harmed, if we are not able to maintain a proprietary panel of a sufficient size and scope, or if the costs of establishing and maintaining our panel increase, our business could be harmed; that we have incorporated and are incorporating traditional AI, machine learning and generative AI into some of our products and that technology is new and developing and may present operational and reputational risks or result in liability or harm to our reputation, business or results of operations; that our international operations are exposed to risks which could impede growth in the future; that we are dependent on our relationship with our former parent company for certain aspects of our business; that our significant indebtedness could adversely affect our financial condition; that the terms of our indebtedness restrict our current and future operations, particularly our ability to respond to change or to take certain actions; and the risks identified under the heading "Risk Factors" in our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, as well as the other information we file with the SEC. We caution investors not to place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements contained in this press release. You are encouraged to read our filings with the SEC, available at www.sec.gov, for a discussion of these and other risks and uncertainties. The forward-looking statements in this press release speak only as of the date of this document, and we undertake no obligation to update or revise any of these statements. Our business is subject to substantial risks and uncertainties, including those referenced above. Investors, potential investors and others should give careful consideration to these risks and uncertainties. Select Defined Terms Subscription Revenue: Defined as Annualized Revenue from subscription services associated with annual and multi-year contracts, and renewal licensing services within our Intelligence solutions; it excludes contracts and products, that are short-term in nature, which we define to mean less than 12 months in duration. Annualized Revenue: Defined as average annualized monthly contract value revenue over the trailing twelve months. Newly acquired client revenue is calculated by (i) annualizing the first month with positive contract value, then (ii) annualizing the monthly average contract value between the second month and eleventh month with positive contract value, and then (iii) annualizing the average contract value across the trailing twelve months. Annualized Revenue is not a forecast and the active contracts at the end of a reporting period used in calculating Annualized Revenue may or may not be extended or renewed by our clients. Net Dollar Retention: Represents the amount of annualized revenue that we generate from our existing clients. Gross Dollar Retention: Represents the amount of prior period annualized revenue we have retained from existing clients in the current period. The calculation reflects only client losses and does not reflect client expansion or contraction. Net Leverage Ratio: Defined as the outstanding term loans balance less total cash ("Net Debt") divided by Adjusted EBITDA. This calculation is only reflected in the Full Year Guidance table above. Non-GAAP Financial Measures We present Organic Constant Currency ("OCC" or "Organic CC") Revenue and Revenue Growth (Decline), EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA Margin, segment Adjusted EBITDA, Free Cash Flow, Unlevered Free Cash Flow, Adjusted Net Income (Loss), Adjusted Net Income (Loss) per Share, Adjusted EPS and Net Leverage Ratio in the tables below as supplemental measures of our operating performance and liquidity. We consider them to be important supplemental measures of our performance and liquidity and believe they are useful to securities analysts, investors and other interested parties in their evaluation of our operating performance and liquidity. These measures reflect the results from the primary operations of our business by excluding the effects of certain items that we do not consider indicative of our core operations and ongoing operating performance. Our financial statements are prepared and presented in accordance with GAAP. These non-GAAP financial measures are not prepared in accordance with GAAP and should not be considered as an alternative to net income or loss, income or loss from operations, earnings or loss per share or any other performance measure prepared and presented in accordance with GAAP, or as an alternative to cash provided by (used in) operating activities as a measure of our liquidity. Consequently, our non-GAAP financial measures should be considered together with our unaudited consolidated financial statements, which are prepared in accordance with U.S. GAAP. This release includes forward-looking guidance for Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA margin, Adjusted EPS, Free Cash Flow and Net Leverage Ratio. We are not able to provide, without unreasonable effort, a reconciliation of the guidance for these measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measure because we do not currently have sufficient data to accurately estimate the variables and individual adjustments included in the most directly comparable GAAP measure that would be necessary for such reconciliations, including (a) costs related to potential debt or equity transactions and (b) other non-recurring expenses that cannot reasonably be estimated in advance. These adjustments are inherently variable and uncertain and depend on various factors that are beyond our control and, as a result, we are unable to predict their probable significance. Therefore, because our management cannot estimate on a forward-looking basis without unreasonable effort the impact these variables and individual adjustments will have on its reported results in accordance with GAAP, it is unable to provide a reconciliation of the non-GAAP financial measures included in its third quarter and full year 2026 guidance. Management has defined the following items to exclude in calculating certain non-GAAP financial measures presented in the tables below: Restructuring and other non-cash compensation expense - Consists of (i) costs related to the 2026 Program for employee separation costs as well as additional costs to streamline the organization through accelerated technology investment incurred to improve efficiency, customer satisfaction, product innovation and productivity and (ii) non-cash compensation expense arising from award modifications resulting from Ms. Tracey Massey's resignation from her position as Chief Operating Officer. We exclude these costs as expenses may not be comparable during the restructuring initiative and for executive resignation expenses. 2026 Program costs are primarily included in selling, general and administrative expenses and non-cash compensation expense arising from executive resignation award modifications are included in restructuring cost in accordance with Company policy. Transformation costs - Consists of costs related to consultancy and advisory fees incurred to evaluate and improve organization efficiencies and operations. We exclude these costs as expenses may not be comparable during the transformation initiative as we progress toward an optimized operating model. These costs are primarily included in selling, general and administrative expenses. Merger and acquisition related costs - Represents non-recurring acquisition-related costs. We exclude these expenses as we believe they are not directly correlated to the underlying performance of our business operations and vary depending upon the timing of such transactions. These costs are primarily included in selling, general and administrative expenses. One-time compensation costs - Reflects acquisition-related retention bonus costs from acquisitions completed in 2021 and 2022. We exclude these expenses as we believe they are not directly correlated to the underlying performance of our business operations and vary depending upon the timing of such transactions. These costs are primarily included in selling, general and administrative expenses. Other one-time costs - Represents real estate costs due to office closures, software license redundancy expenses and other one-time costs. We exclude these expenses as we believe they are not directly correlated to the underlying performance of our business operations and vary depending upon the timing of such transactions. These costs are primarily included in selling, general and administrative expenses. Organic Constant Currency Revenue and Organic Constant Currency Revenue Growth Organic Constant Currency Revenue Growth is calculated by dividing (a) our Revenues for the applicable period after (i) excluding the impact of acquisitions and similar transactions until the one-year anniversary of such acquisition or similar transaction, (ii) excluding the impact of divestitures and (iii) excluding the impact of foreign currency exchange rates by translating local currency results into U.S. dollars using the comparable prior-period average exchange rates, by (b) our Revenues for the prior comparable period. We believe Organic Constant Currency Revenue Growth provides investors with useful supplemental information about our revenue growth to assist in understanding the growth attributable to our core business, excluding the impact of currency fluctuation given the significant variability in revenues that can be driven by foreign currency exchange rates. The following tables present Organic Constant Currency Revenue Growth for the three and six months ended June 30, 2026 and 2025. We present Organic Constant Currency Revenue and Organic Constant Currency Revenue Growth as supplemental measures of our operating performance because they eliminate the impact of certain items that we do not consider indicative of our ongoing operating performance. Organic Constant Currency Revenue and Organic Constant Currency Revenue Growth should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for performance measures calculated in accordance with GAAP. EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA Margin EBITDA is defined as net loss attributable to NIQ excluding interest expense, net, income tax expense and depreciation and amortization. Adjusted EBITDA is defined as EBITDA adjusted for restructuring and other non-cash compensation expense, Transformation Program costs, GfK integration costs, acquisition and transaction related costs, impairment of long-lived assets, foreign currency exchange gain, net, nonoperating items, net, share-based compensation expense and other operating items, net. Specifically, Adjusted EBITDA allows for an assessment of our operating performance without the effect of charges that do not relate to the core operations of our business. Adjusted EBITDA Margin is calculated by dividing Adjusted EBITDA by Revenue. The following table shows EBITDA, and Adjusted EBITDA for the periods presented, and the reconciliation to their most comparable GAAP measure, Net Loss Attributable to NIQ, and Net Loss attributable to NIQ divided by Revenue, for the periods presented: Footnotes to the table above: Includes (i) 2026 Program restructuring expenses for employee separation costs as well as additional costs to streamline the organization through accelerated technology investment incurred to improve efficiency, customer satisfaction, product innovation and productivity and (ii) non-cash share-based compensation expense of nil and $9.5 million for the three and six months ended June 30, 2026, respectively, arising from award modifications resulting from Ms. Tracey Massey’s resignation from her position as Chief Operating Officer. Transformation Program costs include costs associated with accelerated technology investment and consultancy and advisory fees incurred to evaluate and improve organizational efficiencies and operations as well as employee separation costs. GfK integration costs include costs for consulting fees and integration associated with the GfK Combination as well as employee separation costs. Acquisitions and transaction related costs represent costs incurred in connection with planned and completed acquisitions, including due diligence, transaction, integration and legal related costs. These costs also include preparation and readiness costs for capital market transactions. Impairment of long-lived assets represents impairment charges for operating lease right-of-use assets, property, plant and equipment and definite-lived intangible assets. Foreign currency exchange gain, net primarily reflects the translation movements on foreign currency denominated term loans as well as the impact of foreign exchange hedges. Nonoperating items, net consists of adjustments primarily related to net periodic pension benefit, other than service cost, remeasurement of warrant to fair value, write-off of unamortized debt discount and debt issuance costs, settlement of tax indemnification, factoring fees and other. The settlement of tax indemnification relates to certain taxes indemnified by Nielsen in connection with the 2021 Carve-Out Transaction. The initial amount was recorded as part of purchase accounting adjustments. Further adjustments are made to the tax indemnification as audit settlements or refunds are recorded. Share-based compensation expense consists of non-cash expense. Other operating items, net primarily consists of gain/loss on sale of long-lived assets. We exclude these expenses because they are not closely tied to the core performance of our business and can cause fluctuations between periods due to the nature and timing of the expense or income. These costs are included in selling, general and administrative expenses as part of the unaudited Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations. The following table reconciles Adjusted EBITDA by segment to loss before income taxes, for the periods presented: Footnotes to the table above: Includes (i) 2026 Program restructuring expenses for employee separation costs as well as additional costs to streamline the organization through accelerated technology investment incurred to improve efficiency, customer satisfaction, product innovation and productivity and (ii) non-cash share-based compensation expense of nil and $9.5 million during the three and six months ended June 30, 2026, respectively, arising from award modifications resulting from Ms. Tracey Massey’s resignation from her position as Chief Operating Officer. Transformation program costs include costs associated with accelerated technology investment and consultancy and advisory fees incurred to evaluate and improve organizational efficiencies and operations as well as employee separation costs. GfK integration costs include costs for consulting fees and integration associated with the GfK Combination as well as employee separation costs. Acquisitions and transaction related costs represent costs incurred in connection with planned and completed acquisitions, including due diligence, transaction, integration and legal related costs. These costs also include preparation and readiness costs for capital market transactions. Consists of adjustments related to: (i) net periodic pension costs other than service cost, (ii) remeasurement of warrant fair value prior to equity reclassification, (iii) factoring fees, (iv) write-off of unamortized debt discount and debt issuance costs, (v) deconsolidation of subsidiaries, (vi) settlement of tax indemnification and (vii) other nonoperating expenses. Consists primarily of adjustments related to gain/loss on sale of long-lived assets. Free Cash Flow and Unlevered Free Cash Flow Free Cash Flow is defined as net cash used in operating activities less cash paid for capital expenditures. Unlevered Free Cash Flow is defined as Free Cash Flow less cash paid for interest. Management believes Free Cash Flow and Unlevered Free Cash Flow, in conjunction with Cash from Operations, can be useful to investors as an indicator of liquidity since capital expenditures are a necessary component of ongoing operations. Management believes that capital expenditures are essential to our innovation and maintenance of our operational capabilities. The following tables show Free Cash Flow and Unlevered Free Cash Flow for the periods presented, and the reconciliation to its most comparable U.S. GAAP measure, net cash used in operating activities, for the periods presented. Free Cash Flow increased by $137.3 million and $230.4 million for the three and six months ended June 30, 2026 as compared to the three and six months ended June 30, 2025, respectively, due to higher cash generated from operations resulting from improved profitability as evidenced by a higher Adjusted EBITDA, increased revenue and lower cash paid for interest as a result of the repayment of debt in connection with the IPO, as well as post-IPO debt refinancing, which triggered reductions in interest rate spreads and generated incremental interest expense savings. See the "Condensed Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows" in the unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements for additional information. Adjusted Net Income (Loss) and Adjusted Net Income (Loss) Per Share Adjusted Net Income (Loss) is defined as Net Loss Attributable to NIQ excluding special items deemed not to be reflective of ongoing or core operations. Adjusted Net Income (Loss) per Share is defined as Adjusted Net Income (Loss) divided by the Weighted Average Shares Outstanding. Adjusted Net Income (Loss) and Adjusted Net Income (Loss) Per Share are used by management and can be useful to investors as an indicator of our core business performance. Management uses these metrics to analyze business operations and to adjust net loss for items we believe do not accurately reflect our core business or that relate to non-cash expenses or noncontrolling interests. The following tables show Adjusted Net Income (Loss) and Adjusted Net Income (Loss) Per Share, for the periods presented, and the reconciliation to their most comparable GAAP measure, Net loss attributable to NIQ and Earnings Per Share, respectively, for the periods presented: Footnotes to the table above: Includes (i) 2026 Program restructuring expenses for employee separation costs as well as additional costs to streamline the organization through accelerated technology investment incurred to improve efficiency, customer satisfaction, product innovation and productivity and (ii) non-cash share-based compensation expense of $9.5 million arising from award modifications resulting from Ms. Tracey Massey’s resignation from her position as Chief Operating Officer. Transformation Program costs include costs associated with consultancy and advisory fees incurred to evaluate and improve organizational efficiencies and operations as well as employee separation costs. Amortization of certain intangible assets consists of amortization costs of intangible assets which were recorded as part of purchase accounting. We exclude the impact of amortization of acquired intangible assets as companies utilize intangible assets with different estimated useful lives and have different methods of amortizing intangible assets. Furthermore, the timing and magnitude of business combination transactions are not predictable, and the purchase price allocated to amortizable intangible assets is unique to each acquisition and can vary significantly from period to period and across companies. These costs are included in depreciation and amortization as part of the Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations (unaudited). GfK integration costs include costs for consulting fees and integration costs associated with the GfK Combination as well as employee separation costs. Acquisitions and transaction related costs represent costs incurred in connection with planned and completed acquisitions, including due diligence, transaction, integration and legal related costs. These costs also include preparation and readiness costs for capital market transactions. Impairment of long-lived assets represents impairment charges for operating lease right-of-use assets, property, plant and equipment and definite-lived intangible assets. Foreign currency exchange gain, net reflects the translation movements on foreign currency denominated term loans as well as the impact of foreign exchange hedges. Nonoperating items, net consists of adjustments primarily related to net periodic pension benefit, other than service cost, remeasurement of warrant to fair value, write-off of unamortized debt discount and debt issuance costs, settlement of tax indemnification and other. The settlement of tax indemnification relates to certain taxes indemnified by Nielsen in connection with the 2021 Carve-Out Transaction. The initial amount was recorded as part of purchase accounting adjustments. Further adjustments are made to the tax indemnification as audit settlements or refunds are recorded. Share-based compensation expense consists of non-cash expense. Other operating items, net primarily consists of gain/loss on sale of long-lived assets. We exclude these expenses because they are not closely tied to the core performance of our business and can cause fluctuations between periods due to the nature and timing of the expense or income. These costs are included in selling, general and administrative expenses as part of the unaudited Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations. Income tax adjustments include the tax effect of the non-GAAP adjustments, calculated using the appropriate statutory tax rate for each adjustment. The non-GAAP tax rate was 34% and 100% for the three months ended June 30, 2026 and 2025, respectively, and 39% and 104% for the six months ended June 30, 2026 and 2025, respectively. Our statutory rate is evaluated annually. #NIQ-IR View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260810412552/en/ Contacts Investors: [email protected] Media: [email protected]

Investor releaseQuarter not tagged2026-08-10

NIQ Global Intelligence Swings to Q2 Adjusted Earnings, Revenue Rises; Lifts 2026 Guidance

MT Newswires

NIQ Global Intelligence (NIQ) reported Q2 adjusted earnings late Monday of $0.27 per diluted share,

Investor releaseQuarter not tagged2026-08-10

NIQ Global Intelligence plc (NIQ) Tops Q2 Earnings and Revenue Estimates

Zacks
NIQ Global Intelligence plc (NIQ) came out with quarterly earnings of $0.27 per share, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $0.21 per share. This compares to a loss of $0.02 per share a year ago. These figures are adjusted for non-recurring items. This quarterly report represents an earnings surprise of +28.57%. A quarter ago, it was expected that this company would post earnings of $0.1 per share when it actually produced earnings of $0.15, delivering a surprise of +50%. Over the last four quarters, the company has surpassed consensus EPS estimates two times. NIQ Global Intelligence plc, which belongs to the Zacks Advertising and Marketing industry, posted revenues of $1.12 billion for the quarter ended June 2026, surpassing the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 1.57%. This compares to year-ago revenues of $1.04 billion. The company has topped consensus revenue estimates four times over the last four quarters. The sustainability of the stock's immediate price movement based on the recently-released numbers and future earnings expectations will mostly depend on management's commentary on the earnings call. NIQ Global Intelligence plc shares have lost about 29.2% since the beginning of the year versus the S&P 500's gain of 13.3%. While NIQ Global Intelligence plc has underperformed the market so far this year, the question that comes to investors' minds is: what's next for the stock? There are no easy answers to this key question, but one reliable measure that can help investors address this is the company's earnings outlook. Not only does this include current consensus earnings expectations for the coming quarter(s), but also how these expectations have changed lately. Empirical research shows a strong correlation between near-term stock movements and trends in earnings estimate revisions. Investors can track such revisions by themselves or rely on a tried-and-tested rating tool like the Zacks Rank, which has an impressive track record of harnessing the power of earnings estimate revisions. Ahead of this earnings release, the estimate revisions trend for NIQ Global Intelligence plc was mixed. While the magnitude and direction of estimate revisions could change following the company's just-released earnings report, the current status translates into a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) for the stock. So, the shares are expected to perform in line with the market in the near f…Read full document

NIQ Global Intelligence plc (NIQ) came out with quarterly earnings of $0.27 per share, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $0.21 per share. This compares to a loss of $0.02 per share a year ago. These figures are adjusted for non-recurring items. This quarterly report represents an earnings surprise of +28.57%. A quarter ago, it was expected that this company would post earnings of $0.1 per share when it actually produced earnings of $0.15, delivering a surprise of +50%. Over the last four quarters, the company has surpassed consensus EPS estimates two times. NIQ Global Intelligence plc, which belongs to the Zacks Advertising and Marketing industry, posted revenues of $1.12 billion for the quarter ended June 2026, surpassing the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 1.57%. This compares to year-ago revenues of $1.04 billion. The company has topped consensus revenue estimates four times over the last four quarters. The sustainability of the stock's immediate price movement based on the recently-released numbers and future earnings expectations will mostly depend on management's commentary on the earnings call. NIQ Global Intelligence plc shares have lost about 29.2% since the beginning of the year versus the S&P 500's gain of 13.3%. While NIQ Global Intelligence plc has underperformed the market so far this year, the question that comes to investors' minds is: what's next for the stock? There are no easy answers to this key question, but one reliable measure that can help investors address this is the company's earnings outlook. Not only does this include current consensus earnings expectations for the coming quarter(s), but also how these expectations have changed lately. Empirical research shows a strong correlation between near-term stock movements and trends in earnings estimate revisions. Investors can track such revisions by themselves or rely on a tried-and-tested rating tool like the Zacks Rank, which has an impressive track record of harnessing the power of earnings estimate revisions. Ahead of this earnings release, the estimate revisions trend for NIQ Global Intelligence plc was mixed. While the magnitude and direction of estimate revisions could change following the company's just-released earnings report, the current status translates into a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) for the stock. So, the shares are expected to perform in line with the market in the near future. You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. It will be interesting to see how estimates for the coming quarters and the current fiscal year change in the days ahead. The current consensus EPS estimate is $0.23 on $1.11 billion in revenues for the coming quarter and $0.98 on $4.48 billion in revenues for the current fiscal year. Investors should be mindful of the fact that the outlook for the industry can have a material impact on the performance of the stock as well. In terms of the Zacks Industry Rank, Advertising and Marketing is currently in the top 42% of the 250 plus Zacks industries. Our research shows that the top 50% of the Zacks-ranked industries outperform the bottom 50% by a factor of more than 2 to 1. Direct Digital Holdings, Inc. (DRCT), another stock in the same industry, has yet to report results for the quarter ended June 2026. The results are expected to be released on August 12. This company is expected to post quarterly loss of $1.94 per share in its upcoming report, which represents a year-over-year change of +96.2%. The consensus EPS estimate for the quarter has remained unchanged over the last 30 days. Direct Digital Holdings, Inc.'s revenues are expected to be $8.8 million, down 13.2% from the year-ago quarter. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report NIQ Global Intelligence plc (NIQ) : Free Stock Analysis Report Direct Digital Holdings, Inc. (DRCT) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com). Zacks Investment Research

TranscriptFY2026 Q22026-08-10

FY2026 Q2 earnings call transcript

Earnings source - 131 paragraphs
Operator

Good evening, and welcome to NIQ's second quarter 2026 earnings conference call. This call is scheduled to last approximately 1 hour. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. With that, I'd like to turn the call over to Will Lyons, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Will Lyons

Thank you. Hello, everyone, and welcome to NIQ's second quarter 2026 earnings call. Joining me today are CEO, Jim Peck, and CFO, Mike Burwell. Following Jim's and Mike's prepared remarks, we'll open the line for Q&A with Jim, Mike, and our Chief AI and Product Officer, Troy Treangen. As a reminder, today's remarks will include forward-looking statements regarding our expectations and outlook. Actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied in these statements. For information about factors that could cause actual results to differ materially, please refer to today's earnings press release and our SEC filings. We undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements made on this call except as required by law. During this call, we will also discuss both GAAP and non-GAAP financial measures.

Will Lyons

Reconciliations of non-GAAP measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures are included in our earnings press release, which is available on our investor relations website. A replay of this call will also be available there. Finally, unless otherwise noted, revenue growth rates mentioned on this call are compared with prior year period. With that, I'll turn the call over to Jim.

Jim Peck

Thank you, Will. Good afternoon, everyone. Before we begin, I just want to apologize. I have a cold, and so I'm sure my voice is a little bit raspy, and we'll just do the best we can. Q2 marked our fifth consecutive quarter exceeding the top end of our guidance across all key metrics. We accelerated organic constant currency revenue growth to 5.8%, grew adjusted EBITDA nearly 22%, and expanded adjusted EBITDA margin 270 basis points to 23.3%. Adjusted earnings per share came in at $0.27, well above the top end of our range. Levered free cash flow inflected positive at $74.1 million, and we reduced leverage to 3.1 times. That's progression from top to bottom line. We are raising full-year 2026 guidance across the board, reflecting our upside performance and positive outlook. It's been a year since our IPO and several things stand out.

Jim Peck

Strong demand for our solutions, our structural advantages, and our strengthening financial profile, including durable growth and retention with 10 consecutive quarters of 5%+ growth in organic constant currency and strong Q2 retention at 105% NDR and 99% GDR. This is a strong core with emerging AI growth opportunities. We are also seeing expanded margins approaching our mid-20s target with a longer-term path into the 30s. Increased profitability, tracking to more than $1 billion of adjusted EBITDA and more than $1 of adjusted EPS this year. Inflecting cash flow in our raised outlook for $245 million-$255 million. Continued deleveraging on track to achieve our sub 3x target. We are delivering results today while reinvesting in competitive differentiation in our future. AI native innovation, consumer panel expansion, technology platform enhancements, and disciplined tuck-in M&A.

Jim Peck

As I have described on our recent calls, NIQ sits on one of the world's most defensible data assets in our view. Decades of permission, harmonized data, and vertical specific context layer across consumer, retail, and market intelligence. We believe that combination is impractical, if not impossible, to replicate. Last quarter, I outlined how NIQ intelligence drives client decision-making and how AI adoption is creating additional growth opportunities. Today, it is about progress we are making on our innovation roadmap. Optiq Bridge and ConnectAI deliver NIQ intelligence, the ground truth layer that enterprise AI runs on, into clients' decision flows. Whether through our tools and LLMs or their own, we are moving up the AI value chain from informing decisions to executing them. The balance of my remarks today will cover three areas. First, how a broadly healthy client demand environment is driving our core growth.

Jim Peck

Second, our progress laying the foundation for additional AI-powered growth. Third, our progress expanding profitability by embedding AI across our organization. On point one, clients are buying more NIQ. Looking at our regions, America's OCC growth led the way, growing 8.3%. EMEA OCC growth accelerated to 4.9%. In both, we saw new wins and strong upselling of our intelligence solutions. In the U.S., a leading coffee manufacturer consolidated onto NIQ from two incumbent providers at once. They told us why. Our AI capabilities and product roadmap, as well as the seamless unified Full View experience across every data set. In EMEA, leading Swiss and U.K. grocers paired measurement with consumer panel to get the Full View. A major U.K. grocer came back to us from a competitor on that same value proposition, choosing our new product granularity and e-commerce expertise. APAC returned to 1.9% OCC growth.

Jim Peck

Here we saw strong activation, cross-sell, and early improvement in China, Japan, and Korea from the retailer relationships and partnerships we outlined last quarter. In Vietnam, we won back a global CPG manufacturer from a competitor mid-pilot by designing a tailored measurement plus field solution in weeks, not quarters. That is the pattern across the region. We start with granular measurement data, then expand into analytics to power go-forward decisions. We also beat two major global incumbents to win the largest going global contract in that market to date, helping a major automaker expand overseas. We also recently acquired YiMian, an e-commerce data and insights business in China and Southeast Asia. It strengthens our digital commerce capabilities, accelerates the Full View, and extends NIQ into adjacent opportunities like agentic commerce in these markets. We also opened new categories and buyer types that were not NIQ's a couple of years ago.

Jim Peck

A global ad tech platform licensed our purchase data to power privacy-safe campaign planning at scale, selecting NIQ over a direct competitor and traditional panel providers. Unlimitail, a leading European retail media platform, chose NIQ to measure business outcomes across its multi-retailer, multi-country network, our first client of its kind. Ad tech and retail media are newer adjacent demand pools prove our data travels well beyond CPG. Growth was not only strong by region but by product. Q2 intelligence growth re-accelerated to 5.7% on new wins and strong upselling motion, particularly in e-commerce and consumer panel. Annualized intelligence subscription revenue, our version of ARR, grew 5.8% in Q2 and eclipsed the $3 billion mark. Activation OCC growth accelerated for a second straight quarter to 6.1%, signaling our commercial and go-to-market efforts are working. A few proof points.

Jim Peck

In North America, a global convenience retailer expanded its renewal into SKU level analytics, price and promotion, and category management across more than a dozen countries, adding over $5 million of incremental value. In the Middle East, a regional manufacturer layered shopper and consumption analytics onto its core measurement subscription, and we took that work back from a competitor across three markets. A global personal care leader extended its worldwide agreement, adding analytics and servicing on top of core measurement. Within activation, demand remained strong for our analytics and innovation-based solutions. Year to date, these solutions were nearly 60% of activation revenue and grew low double digits. Looking deeper, our AI native solutions, BASES AI and NIQ Activate, drove meaningful share of that growth. This growth isn't a one-off.

Jim Peck

It's driven by newer AI native offerings that feed directly from our proprietary core data, and that data is growing fast. We added 4.3 trillion consumer transaction data records per week in Q2, 23% faster than last year. This spans 260 million product items with 10.5 billion product attributes in our 160 petabyte data engine, all rooted in NIQ's vertical specific expertise. That granularity benefits our entire portfolio. In fact, more than 90% of our revenues derive from this proprietary data, and our capabilities are increasingly at the fore as client AI adoption accelerates. Let me share some proof points from our first wave. Data point consumption on our platform grew 25% year-over-year. Roughly 51% of our top 100 clients now use at least one of our AI native solutions, and the number of clients using them has grown 64% year to date.

Jim Peck

This is also translating into financial results. Revenue from AI native solutions grew by 34% in Q2, and more than 80% of AI native revenue comes from recurring clients, a good sign of stickiness and long-term value. Clients are at the center of everything we do, and we're focused on doing more. In June, our annual flagship client event, C360, drew more than 600 CPG tech and durables and retailer decision-makers from across the globe. Their message was clear: help them cut through the fragmented data and disconnected systems and decide faster in a fast-changing consumer landscape and help them capitalize on their AI strategies. Which brings me to my second point, our progress laying the foundation for additional AI-powered, profitable growth. Last quarter, I described our three-pillar strategy to fuel the future of trusted AI.

Jim Peck

In Q2 and year to date, we accelerated innovation to deliver AI native value for clients and our business. In our first pillar, building NIQ AI applications for smarter outcomes, at C360, we announced Optiq Suite, our insight assistants, and NIQ Cadence, our GenAI native marketing effectiveness platform. Aligned to our second pillar, NIQ IP that fuels AI, we announced the launch of Optiq Bridge and Connect AI Suite, which embed decision-grade NIQ intelligence directly into market leading applications, AI-powered workflows, and the enterprise. We have also progressed MCP access and integrations with all of the leading AI platforms so clients can reach secure governed NIQ intelligence directly through these platforms. These launches let us meet clients exactly where they are, whether they are an AI buyer of NIQ solutions directly or through an LLM or an ad builder embedding NIQ within their own AI environment.

Jim Peck

Importantly, every solution has permission service layers built in. Clients can embed NIQ intelligence into their AI use cases while keeping the NIQ decoder ring, the IP, methodologies, and models that power our differentiated analytics. Last week, we announced the first charter clients for Connect AI. These include Purina, a global personal hygiene company, a leading beauty company, and two global beverage companies. Each is working with a dedicated NIQ engineering and data science team to build AI-ready intelligence infrastructure and decision workflows inside their own environment. Early client demand has been strong. Our pipeline has grown quickly to 49 live opportunities, including our charter clients and active discussions with many of our top clients. It is also broad-based across FMCG and tech and durables, as well as with clients large and small. We plan to add more charter clients, including retailers, in the next phase.

Jim Peck

We are also in active discussions on several AI partnerships with major players that can accelerate our objectives. These include a partnership leveraging forward-deployed engineering expertise to accelerate deployment of Optiq Bridge, and discussion with multiple partners around our agentic commerce measurement launch targeted for later this year. On our third pillar, powering commerce intelligence and agentic commerce, we see a long-term growth opportunity. AI is playing a bigger and bigger role in consumer shopping, moving from answering questions to influencing commercial decisions, to helping execute them. As that happens, NIQ's granular content on product attributes, availability, pricing, and consumer preferences moves directly into the commerce flow and rises in value. Our capabilities span product intelligence and availability, channel and media measurement, and agentic transaction integration, positioning NIQ, we believe, to play an operative role in the next phase of AI-powered commerce. During Q2, we built toward that future.

Jim Peck

NIQ Commerce Lab is establishing the data, API, and measurement infrastructure for AI-driven commerce. We launched Product Intelligence, the first offering in our commercial intelligence portfolio. It resolves fragmented product data under a single structured layer. This allows AI commerce systems to accurately identify, compare, and recommend products to drive shopping conversion. Taken together, we believe this wave of AI launches positions us for significant growth. 2026 is a foundation-building year, driving early adoption, expanding partnerships, validating monetization models, and scaling our first client implementations. Over time, we look to layer on additional revenue streams, premium AI-ready data, usage-based AI services, AI-native applications like Optiq, Bridge, and Connect AI, as well as AI deployment services. While we expect these initiatives to contribute some revenue in 2026, our raised 2026 outlook does not assume a material contribution from them. This year is about building.

Jim Peck

We expect to begin scaling commercially in 2027 and beyond. Leading that effort is Irina Stoian, who joined us as our Chief AI Commercial Officer in July from Palantir, where she scaled technology and analytics businesses. She is partnering with Troy and the team to drive our next chapter of AI-powered client value, and I look forward to you meeting her in the future. Our core revenue base is strong, and we are building AI value on top of it. Which brings me to my third point, the benefits of AI-led operating efficiency. AI is accelerating our ability to build, deliver, and support our products and our clients. We are seeing AI-led productivity gains across data operations, engineering, commercial, and support functions, contributing roughly half of the 270 basis points of year-over-year margin expansion in Q2.

Jim Peck

In the first half, we completed the vast majority of actions under our 2026 restructuring program, achieving most of the $70 million to $80 million of expected run rate savings. These are structural efficiency gains with less than one-year payback, and we believe we have only scratched the surface. We are pursuing additional efficiencies across our largest expense areas, prioritizing these that carry little to no one-time cost to achieve. We will remain disciplined, harvest efficiently, reinvest a portion in long-term growth, and expand profitably. As I outlined last quarter, the path from the mid-20 margins into the 30s is fundamentally about flowing durable revenue growth across a largely fixed cost base that we are making more efficient. As a result, every incremental dollar of revenue should carry higher margin than the last.

Jim Peck

To close, we are doing what we said we would do, and as I have said before in a previous call, we are going to show you that we are an execution machine, driving our core algorithm, expanding margins, raising EPS, inflecting cash flow, and laying the foundation for AI-native monetization and operating efficiency into 2027 and beyond. Thank you to NIQ associates worldwide for delivering a great quarter. I am excited about what we are building. With that, I will hand it to Mike to cover our detailed Q2 financials and our raised full-year outlook.

Mike Burwell

Thanks, Jim, and good morning, everyone. As Jim outlined, it was a stronger quarter. Results exceeded our expectations and our guidance across every key metric. Revenue grew 5.8% in organic constant currency. Adjusted EBITDA grew 21.9%, and margins expanded by 270 basis points to 23.3%. Adjusted EPS was $0.27, and leverage-free cash flow improved by $137 million to positive $74.1 million. Taken together, these results reflect disciplined execution, improving profitability, and continued progress toward a stronger balance sheet. Our raised guidance reflects continued strength in our core business and AI-driven efficiencies from our 2026 cost program starting to ripple through our cost structure. I will cover the details after walking through our strong top and bottom line results. Q2 reported revenue accelerating to 8% growth or $1.1 billion, 5.8% in organic constant currency.

Mike Burwell

This growth came from execution of our revenue growth algorithm, strong retention, pricing, and cross-selling and upselling with contribution across intelligence and activation. Net loss was $30.5 million, while adjusted net income improved by $80 million on a year-over-year basis to $78.7 million. Consolidated adjusted EBITDA grew 21.9% year-over-year to $262 million, and we expanded margins 270 basis points to 23.3%. This came from increased operating leverage as well as AI-enabled automation benefits and our 2026 productivity program, making our largely fixed cost base more efficient. From a segment perspective, our largest markets continue to lead the way. Americas grew 8.3% on organic constant currency driven by intelligence and cross-selling our activation solutions. In the U.S., a global personal care company consolidated its retail analytics work with NIQ, displacing a legacy provider on the strength of our data quality and analytical depth.

Mike Burwell

Americas adjusted EBITDA grew 10.5% to $143 million with margins of 31.4%. Our EMEA segment grew 4.9% in organic constant currency with the same drivers as we saw in Americas. EMEA adjusted EBITDA grew to 26.1% to $179 million with margins expanding 550 basis points to 35.3%. Our APAC region returned to year-over-year growth, up 1.9% in organic constant currency, a meaningful sequential improvement from Q1 and in line with the trajectory we outlined in May. Growth was driven by improving commercial momentum and cross-sell for our analytics and innovation-based activation solutions, as well as improvement in key markets that Jim cited earlier. APAC adjusted EBITDA increased 9.2% to $32 million, with margins expanding 120 basis points to 19.8%. Strong results. Americas and EMEA signal competitive strength, and APAC is recovering. Outside Americas, performance remains solid despite the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.

Mike Burwell

We believe Q2 demonstrates healthy client demand for both our measurement and analytic solutions in any macro backdrop. We believe our top-line results demonstrate that our revenue growth algorithm is working. From a product perspective, Q2 was our 10th straight quarter of intelligence revenue growth above 5% and annualized intelligence subscription growth above 5.5%, extending our performance track record. As Jim highlighted, annualized intelligence subscription revenue exceeded $3 billion, up 5.8%, and continued strong net and gross dollar retention underscores our mission criticality with our clients. Activation revenue improved for the second straight quarter, growing 6.1% in organic constant currency. Looking deeper across all regions, we have seen low double-digit growth in our analytics and innovation-based offerings. This has been driven by traction scaling our retail analytics wins in Americas, as well as high single-digit growth in APAC. Overall, we see broadly healthy client pipeline for our activation solutions.

Mike Burwell

Looking down the P&L, Q2 operating expenses increased by 5.7%, driven primarily by targeted investments in data coverage and granularity, and to a lesser extent, by one-time costs related to our 2026 restructuring program. Excluding these charges, operating expenses grew much slower than reported revenue growth, demonstrating the ongoing cost discipline and increasing operating leverage across the business. One-time restructuring costs totaled approximately $36 million in the quarter. $15 million came from our 2026 restructuring program, and the balance from our legacy NIQ and GfK transformation initiatives and one-time deal-related cost. These legacy transformation programs continue to roll off as per plan. As Jim mentioned, we have completed nearly all of our 2026 program actions in the first half, and we are tracking towards a $75 million cost to achieve target for 2026.

Mike Burwell

These actions, which have less than one-year payback, are setting us up for increased structural cost efficiency for years to come. From a cash standpoint, we incurred $20 million cash outlay for this program in the first half. We expect the majority of the balance to be paid out in the second half of 2026. This program has less than the one-year payback, and we expect to continue to identify additional efficiency opportunities as we move forward. Depreciation and amortization was $154 million for the quarter, approximately 14% of revenue in line with prior quarters. If I look below the operating line, GAAP interest expense was $55 million, $40 million lower than the prior year, reflecting lower debt balances and our transformed post-IPO capital structure.

Mike Burwell

Changes in foreign currency result in a de minimis gain in Q2 compared to a $57 million gain in Q2 of 2025, a period that contained significant FX volatility. The lower gain primarily reflects less foreign currency impact on the remeasurement of foreign currency denominated debt. Income tax expense was $38 million, or approximately 14% of adjusted EBITDA, roughly in line with expectations we've provided. The net loss was $30.5 million, primarily reflecting lower FX gains versus Q2 of 2025. Adjusted net income improved by $80.3 million to positive $78.7 million, driven primarily by higher adjusted EBITDA and lower interest expense. Correspondingly, Q2 adjusted EPS came in very strong at $0.27, well ahead of our guidance and consensus.

Mike Burwell

If I turn to liquidity and free cash flow, as of June 30th, we had $417 million in cash and cash equivalents and $747 million available revolver capacity, resulting in total available liquidity of approximately $1.2 billion. We remain undrawn on this revolver during the quarter. Cash flow from operating activities was $140.1 million, versus a use of $80.6 million in Q2 2025. Capital expenditures were $66 million, reflecting continued investment in strategic growth initiatives such as building our AI capabilities, expanding our technology platform, and growing our data assets, such as our omni-channel consumer panels. Leverage-free cash flow inflected positive to $74.1 million in Q2, up $137.3 million on a year-over-year basis and $197.3 million versus Q1. This is driven by revenue growth and stronger flow-through, given prudent cost management, as well as improved working capital and lower cash interest expense.

Mike Burwell

I'd also note that we saw particular outperformance from net working capital execution versus what underpinned our Q2 guidance in May. Our 2026 is the strong cash flow inflection we've previewed since our IPO, and our raised full-year 2026 free cash flow guidance implies approximately $300 million of leverage-free cash flow generation in the second half alone. This factors into our strong Q2 outperformance from working capital execution and aligns with our broader guidance philosophy of providing expectations we believe we can achieve, if not outperform. Net debt was $3.1 billion at quarter end, and our net leverage ratio improved to approximately 3.1 times, down from 3.4 at the end of Q1. We remain firmly on track to achieve our net leverage target by the end of 2026. A quick note on capital allocation.

Mike Burwell

Our capital priorities of the business are unchanged: fund growth, expand margins, and particularly pay down debt. We have successfully reinvested some of our cost program savings to fuel our AI growth strategy, and will continue to pursue strategic tuck-in M&A where we see compelling returns. As cash builds, we gain capital allocation flexibility. This is strengthening ahead of expectations in 2026 and positions us well as we head into 2027. We will update you on our 2027 priorities as those plans firm up. Now, before getting into guidance details, a quick reminder about our guidance philosophy. The strong back half and higher full-year 2026 outlook is grounded in our first half overperformance. If that momentum continues, we expect to finish at or modestly above the top of our ranges, and we've set that range at the level we believe is appropriate.

Mike Burwell

For the third quarter, we expect reported revenue growth of approximately 4.9%-5.3%, organic constant currency revenue growth of approximately 5.2%-5.5%, adjusted EBITDA growth of 15%-17%, driving margins of 23%-23.5%, and adjusted EPS of $0.22-$0.24. Our raised full-year 2026 expectations include reported revenue growth of 7.1%-7.4%, organic constant currency revenue growth of 5.2%-5.6%, adjusted EBITDA growth of 15%-17%, driving margins of 23.5%-23.9%, adjusted earnings per share of $1.08-$1.12, a more than 13% increase at the midpoint, leverage free cash flow of $245 million-$255 million, up approximately $8 million at the midpoint, and we expect to be below three times net leverage by year end. Our raised guidance reflects our business outperformance and favorable foreign currency from Q2, as well as our YiMian acquisition.

Mike Burwell

I'll also note that we hit the ground running, integrating YiMian into our business and their solutions into our distribution channels. Based on our reported results and our Q3 and full-year guidance, our implied Q4 outlook reflects OCC growth in line with our Q3 expectation, EBITDA margin expansion on a year-over-year basis implying approximately 370 basis points of improvement versus Q3 2026, reflecting our typical Q4 revenue and cost seasonality, and adjusted EPS nearly double our Q3 expectation. I'll note that our full-year 2026 modeling assumptions remain unchanged. Depreciation and amortization of $614 million-$619 million, GAAP net interest expense of $230 million-$235 million, income tax expense of $165 million-$170 million, diluted share count of approximately 300 million, and CapEx of 6.5%-7% of revenue. In closing, it was a strong quarter. We're delivering on our promises. Our financials are strengthening.

Mike Burwell

We're executing well on our core offerings, and we're building additional monetization opportunities on top. With that, operator, we're ready for Q&A.

Operator

Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. Please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one to raise your hand. To withdraw your question, press star one again. We ask that you pick up your handset when asking a question to allow for optimum sound quality. If you are muted locally, please remember to unmute your device. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Your first question comes from the line of Manav Patnaik with Barclays. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Manav Patnaik

Thank you. Good evening. I just wanted to ask about just the general trends in the quarter. If you look, I think the intelligence subscription growth remained strong. It was really activation, and I guess the transaction piece of intelligence that really did well this quarter. So just trying to appreciate how much of that pull forward you talked about last time, or push forward rather, in April, and how sustainable these kind of growth rates are in activation, maybe for the second half of the year.

Jim Peck

Sure, Manav. This is Jim here. We're going to let Mike take that one right out of the gate.

Mike Burwell

Thanks, Manav. We're excited about the growth that we saw in both intelligence and activation for the quarter. In intelligence at 5.7% and activation at 6.1%, we're continuing to see that momentum build. In particular, when we look at our APAC business, we saw it improve to 1.9% here in Q2, and we expect that to continue to contribute overall growth, which will help both on intelligence and activation as that continues to grow overall. As I highlighted, our e-commerce and TPS growth rates are very strong, call it north of 30% in terms of the growth rates associated with those two areas in particular, and we should see those continue to move both our intelligence, in particular, and to some degree, activation. So we're very excited about it, and as you know, 80% of that, our business is three to five-year contracts.

Troy Treangen

We are continuing to grow that in terms of win backs in the marketplace as we highlighted in the course of our prepared remarks. We are very excited about what we are seeing in the business. Appreciate the question that you have asked. We continue to see real good results as it relates to both intelligence and activation.

Manav Patnaik

Okay, got it. Jim, maybe just on ConnectAI, just help me visualize exactly what you are building for clients and perhaps how that gets monetized.

Jim Peck

Sure. Manav, I will give you a little lead in. We have Troy Treangen here, our Chief Product Officer. I want to make sure you get to hear directly from him. What we started seeing really later last year, and then as we came into this year, just being in conversations with our clients is they were trying to figure out how to accelerate their ability to innovate, of course how to save money, how to do better price and motion, how to do everything better than they had before by using all the assets at their disposal. What they clearly understood is they need our information and our models inside their world. What we started finding out is they also needed our knowhow on how to integrate information together.

Jim Peck

They were finding this out because they were coming to us and saying, "Hey, the X integrator needs help." These charter deals that you heard us announce are a lot about that. They are about new use cases, by the way, with new budgets inside our clients' world, where we are helping them do the things that they normally do every day, just better, faster, and cheaper. I will turn it over to Troy to give you more color. I think this is a really important thing for us to spend time on.

Troy Treangen

Yeah. Our Connect AI services are specifically for one of our AI segments, and that AI segment is our AI Builder segment that Jim just talked about. These are a series of clients that want to bring insights and analytics into their environments and use that NIQ intelligence to amplify those workflows. Jim mentioned, we announced our first charter clients last week. Purina was the first one that is named, but that group also includes a global personal hygiene company, a leading beauty company, and two global beverage companies. We are going to be adding more charter clients through the end of this year, which will include retailers. Each charter client ultimately gets dedicated engineers and data scientists that help make our intelligence work within their workflows. What this means is they actually help write code and connect their environments to ours.

Troy Treangen

Jim also mentioned it in his remarks, that our new products have permission service layers built in. This creates additional value, and we are the decoder ring and the certified answer for things around our data and our intelligence. Like it was already said, but I will resay it again, demand has come fast, 49 live opportunities in the pipeline. Many more active discussions are in process, and I think soon you will see retailers and other clients into the mix. On top of that, we also have active discussions on several AI partnerships to scale this even further. One, leveraging four deployed engineers' expertise to speed up our development for our solutions that we will bring to market. We have multiple partners around agentic commerce measurement and touchpoints, and that product will be launched later this year. More to come on that soon.

Troy Treangen

The charter phase is all about proving the value and hardening a repeatable model. It is deep, it is sticky, and it is where we see the biggest middle to long-term opportunity in our space.

Manav Patnaik

Thank you.

Jim Peck

Thanks, Manav.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Kevin McVeigh with UBS. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Kevin McVeigh

Great. Thanks so much, and congratulations on the results. Hey, I wonder just, given the trends in the organic constant currency growth, maybe just talk to activation because it. And because that looked really good. And on the intelligence side too, even off a tougher comp, you saw real nice re-acceleration. I think it is really, really important. So maybe you can just revisit that a little bit.

Mike Burwell

Kevin, you broke up just a tiny bit in there. This is Jim. Your question

Kevin McVeigh

Hey, Jim.

Mike Burwell

Your question in essence is, tell me about intelligence and activation growth and how you feel about it. Is that?

Kevin McVeigh

Yeah, that is exactly right.

Mike Burwell

Okay.

Kevin McVeigh

Even off tougher comps, just saw real nice re-acceleration. Maybe just a little bit on that, because it is just really nice to see that.

Mike Burwell

All right. Yeah.

Jim Peck

Great.

Mike Burwell

So appreciate it, Kevin. It's Mike. When we look at intelligence, I mentioned we saw the rebound associated with APAC at the 1.9% growth. One of the things that we did, and we mentioned this a bit in Q1, was we improved our coverage. We signed up a couple more retailers that we specifically talked about in Q1, and we're starting to see that starting to pay off and see it in the growth that we're seeing in intelligence. We're continuing to win in the marketplace. Those are continuing to add, and as I had mentioned a little bit during my prepared remarks, and to Manav's question, when you look at really what's been happening in e-com and our panel on demand, has just really been very attractive to the marketplace and have been growing at +30%.

Mike Burwell

All those are contributing to our intelligence growth, and we're continuing to see that happen. On the activation side, people are very interested in our analytics solutions in particular. Our BASES AI Screener is just one example that's happening in our BASES portfolio as well. As I said in my comments, both of those business lines are growing at greater than double digit overall. The demand's been very strong for activation. That's what we're seeing overall, Kevin, and we're very excited about what's happening in both of those areas, as well as what Troy had mentioned previously.

Kevin McVeigh

Super helpful. Just real quick, as you're phasing in the AI, any way to think about where it is from a geographical perspective in terms of just coverage and how we should think about that over the balance of the year?

Jim Peck

You are talking about maybe where is the most initial penetration, is that fair?

Kevin McVeigh

Yeah, that is exactly right.

Mike Burwell

Yeah, for sure it is in the U.S. but not exclusively at all to the U.S. I think the bigger, more like at our C360 conference, which is mostly a U.S.-based conference, the theme, both formally and informally in our little conversations, was our clients were like, "Help us move faster. We see what you can do. We like what you are doing, what you told us on stage.

Mike Burwell

Now, how can you help me move faster internally to navigate what I have got to navigate to use these AI tools, not only on your data, but your data combined with our data?" I think they are much more in a position, as Troy said, with the builder. They are our builders, and they are in a position to move quickly. The pipeline is there in Western Europe for sure, in Asia for sure, even in MEA, because these tools work.

Mike Burwell

Our data is primed to be able to be used to take advantage of it. It is not just in our builder products, but it is also in our Optiq products within Discover, and we are releasing some new capabilities yet this month that people are going to be able to take advantage of if they so choose, and we believe they will. It is really broad-based. The whole world is dealing with AI, as you know. But as far as the charter things that we talked about, that is primarily U.S., but the pipeline has plenty of global opportunities as well.

Kevin McVeigh

Super helpful. Congrats again.

Jim Peck

All right. Thanks, Kevin.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Alexander Hess with JPMorgan. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Alexander Hess

Thank you, operator. Hey guys. Wanted to maybe just dive into something, maybe to start with the call-outs that CPS, which I understand is the consumer panel business, and then e-com grew north of 30%. With intelligence growing in the mid-single digits, does that imply you have products in sort of traditional measurement and in retail analytics that are maybe growing below that number or notably below that number, or is that just not the right way to think about it? Just want to clarify how you guys bucket that call-out specifically.

Jim Peck

The core business, what we call our RMS business, is primarily in intelligence. I think the number is the number there. Of course, CPS and e-com are portions of it that are growing faster. But as a percentage of the total revenue, they are much smaller. I would not think of it that way, Alex. I would say that the number you are seeing kind of stands on its own, and it reflects what I believe is a good, healthy, recurring revenue stream. I will just remind you that none of that number, while there is a little of our AI-based revenue in that number, none of our guidance forward is really reflecting that yet. We are being cautious to see how fast

Jim Peck

the stuff is taken up. We consider that intelligence revenue, by the way, for the most part. That will just take that number up.

Alexander Hess

Awesome. Can you give us an update on a Full View measurement client count, any recent traction? Obviously, you guys put out some press releases about integrating some more Amazon 3P data in certain categories, but just anything on Full View measurement in Q2 and your outlook for beyond Q2.

Jim Peck

Yeah. I do not have the exact number in front of me, but we know that it is more than 200 clients now have taken up the Full View measure. That strategy, which we have embarked on five years ago, is much more expansive than just Amazon sales and share or Costco or whatever. It is the foundation of what we do, not only driving, we are getting more adoption, but it also helps us with our annual renewal cycle, and it is proving to be quite good. I think the insight behind that question is we have our foot in that world, and it is important that we always have what we call the Full View. So the most holistic view of this consumer shopping behavior. If we lose that, we lose what is the essence of who we are. That is what enables AI.

Jim Peck

If we have our foot in the other world firmly now, I think trying to demonstrate that it is the Full View plus these AI capabilities that are going to keep us super relevant to our clients and also allow us to grow. The root of that is we are now in even more use cases. I think there was a theory it would be in less. No, we are in more use cases, and they are obvious use cases now. We are also getting access to more budgets within our clients, so we are not arguing over the same dollar. I like to talk about both those things together now.

Alexander Hess

Makes sense to me. Thanks, Jim.

Jim Peck

We do have multiple product enhancements that are coming for Full View measurement. You referenced one, there are many more coming in the back half of this year.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Kyle Peterson with Needham. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Kyle Peterson

Great. Good afternoon and nice results. Wanted to start off on the data consumption disclosure, I guess, at +25% year to date. It is really good to see. I guess, how can we think about this over the medium term? Is this something that drives higher consumption across the product base and then pushes revenue higher? Or, is this a more highly correlated thing with AI products and just trying to, I guess, parse through

Jim Peck

Yeah

Kyle Peterson

the link between consumption and revenue over the medium term?

Jim Peck

Sure. Kyle, first, thanks for noticing our results, and good question. What it really does, in my view, is measure our relevance with our clients. Any notion that it is not relevant, I think is just proven by that. They are only consuming more and more and more because the more granular the data, the more depth in the data, or breadth I should say, in the data, the better any tool is going to work. They continue to use Discover in its, let us say, the more traditional analytics, which are quite powerful, but they are also experimenting in some cases, or actually doing in some cases, and using our data points inside their world if they are sophisticated enough to do that. I think it is an overall measure of how our relevance continues to grow within our clients.

Jim Peck

I do not know if we measured that thing that far in the past, but I can tell you that that number has not been that high. I think it is just showing how, in the double digits, or kind of high double digits. I think you will see that trend continue. There is an insatiable demand for what we have. As they are seeing their results get better, especially combined with some of their own assets only they have for themselves with our data at a granular level, they are seeing that they can make pretty profound changes, either making themselves more cost efficient or innovating more quickly and driving their top line.

Kyle Peterson

Great. That is really helpful. And then, I guess, maybe if we could switch gears over to how some of your client conversations are evolving. Are you guys seeing any change or growth in budget for demand-based solutions, maybe away from traditional marketing or SKU-based placement? Obviously, things like agent of commerce and data-based product development decisioning is definitely becoming increasingly prevalent. I guess, is that playing out at all in your kind of client discussions? And if so, how is that potentially translating into deal conversion or demand?

Jim Peck

Yeah. Yes, for sure. And this gives me a chance to mention Irina Stoian that we have just recently brought in. She used to work for Palantir doing a lot of the same things she is going to work with us on, and that is a direct

Jim Peck

Reaction/anticipation of the demand for what is now being called forward deployed engineers, but engineers who are in our clients' world helping them use our core services in new ways, integrated with theirs. So that conversations are new, they are new budgets. I have been in many, but Troy has been in even more than I have. Maybe Troy, you can elaborate on one or two.

Troy Treangen

Yeah. So it is a different client base. So typically it is not the market research teams that are using these types of resources. It definitely comes from the chief data officers, chief technology officers. And that is what these products, this whole series of ConnectAI services with the deployment plan around it, is intended to go after. Completely different, like I said, completely different budgets. They are enabling multiple different workflows throughout a client's organization, and that is the untapped demand that has been talked about a lot here today.

Kyle Peterson

Excellent. Thank you, guys. Nice results.

Troy Treangen

Thank you.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Andrew Nicholas with William Blair. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Andrew Nicholas

Hi, good afternoon. I wanted to ask about AI as a benefit to the data assets that you have specifically. I hear you on the prioritization piece, the efficiency piece, and this insatiable demand from clients. Is the product or I guess the data estate that you have being augmented by the technology, are you able to gather more information, more detailed, more attributes? I would imagine that would be beneficial long term as well, and hoping you could speak to that specifically.

Troy Treangen

Yeah. You hit on one of the core key strategies here. When we talk about these AI set of components, there is four buckets of product capability that we have beneath it. One of them is all around, which you referenced the last second here, was premium AI-ready data solutions. This is all about collecting data faster and coding and characterizing them faster, getting more breadth and depth. I think a couple of questions ago, we talked about a Full View measurement, and that is how you expand out to even 3P coding that was referenced and some of these other things. You can do it at faster scale and get more breadth of depth of characteristics and facts around the data sets we have.

Troy Treangen

The more you get, the more AI tools can filter and do correlations and causations on consumer response and sales and all the things you would imagine. The second tier is all the series of services that use those data attributes to help harmonize and enrich data within their environments. We combine those characteristics and further enrich. That is the second part where AI comes into play because it can do it at faster scale, whether that is using web content or other sentiment data that exists, bring those in and can add it to the product. Then the third, which we talked about, that we put it in our applications and solutions like Optiq Bridge, NIQ Cadence, ConnectAI services. Lastly, it is the AI deployed engineers and data scientists that sit on top that we just mentioned in the last question.

Troy Treangen

It is all four of those things coming together to create and optimize a workflow, and that is the end-to-end product design.

Andrew Nicholas

Very helpful. Thank you. For my follow-up, a few, well, a multi-part question maybe on margins. I guess first, Mike, is there anything you could say about what was realized in terms of synergies in the second quarter? In MEA in particular, like a really, really nice step up year-over-year. It looks like that margin profile is higher than the other two segments. If you could just speak to the strength there, the drivers, and any reason for that to be structurally higher than U.S. or APAC long term, or I should say Americas or APAC long term.

Mike Burwell

Sure. On the overall margins, up 270 basis points, the 23.3%. When you look at it, the 26 restructuring actions, the flow-through that we had had on the NIQ transformation, in aggregate, those drove about half the improvement in margins, and the other half has come from the revenue growth on our fixed cost base. Roughly 80% of our costs are fixed, and you are getting that margin flow-through to that 23.3% overall that we had for the quarter. Embedded in that is MEA at that 550 basis points improvement. We have continued to manage our cost base effectively in that market, which has been a key view of us overall for the company, but specifically that it being our largest business and therefore we have been very focused on managing. That team has done a great job in terms of managing costs overall.

Mike Burwell

The other thing I would say, there is a little bit of timing that has happened in our activation solutions there, just in terms of the cost associated with the variable costs associated with those projects. Just a little bit of timing that has benefited us in Q2 overall. Hopefully that gives you some insight to it. As you did see, we did raise our full year guidance on our margins as well.

Andrew Nicholas

Yes. Thank you.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Curtis Nagle with Bank of America. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Curtis Nagle

Okay, great. Thanks. First, a more short-term question, then a longer one. First, would you be able to clarify just how much of the cash restriction costs you will bear in Q3 and the free cash, and just how to think about the flow from Q3 to Q4? I just want to make sure we get the puts and takes there, right?

Mike Burwell

Yeah. If you look at the cash spend that happened, Curt, as it relates to the programs, there was $28 million in Q1 and $24 million in Q2. I would say that $50 million rough spend that you are looking out over the rest of the year, think about 70% of that is probably going to land in Q3 in terms of thinking about the numbers.

Curtis Nagle

Okay. Very good. I guess just the next one, just thinking about, and I think you had mentioned potential scope for more AI efficiencies in the cost space. I just think about long term and how much quicker does that potentially pull you to your above 30% EBITDA target margin range?

Jim Peck

Yeah. This is Jim. I do not think we have put an exact timeframe on the above 30%. We do have line of sight to it, and it is definitely driven by the continued understanding, practical understanding, and use of AI, among other efficiency programs within our company. AI is a big part of it, and it makes sense for us, as you can. It is kind of logical. We do a lot of work with data, and the more we automate that, the cheaper it is going to get, or the more we use AI, let us call it, to do things, it will be faster and cheaper. We write a lot of code, so the more we use AI, the more we are going to be able to write code faster.

Jim Peck

We do have a people-heavy company where a lot of the things that we do can be made more efficient through the use of AI, whether it is customer success or even the administering of the sales process itself, or HR and hiring. I can keep going on. It affects every part of our business. We are in the very early innings of taking advantage of that. It has already shown up, as you have seen, in some pretty juicy jumps in our EBITDA margins. You can just say there is. I do not think we have exhausted anywhere near our ability to generate more margin going forward.

Curtis Nagle

Okay. Very clearly. Appreciate it. Thanks, Jim.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Shlomo Rosenbaum with Stifel. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Shlomo Rosenbaum

Hi. Thank you very much. I want to focus a little bit more on the cash flow. Your cash flow clearly did well. Actually crushed it. For the rest of the year, you are talking about another $50 million of cash restructuring payments in the second half, yet still generating $300 million of free cash flow. If I am thinking about the business in a longer term, can you quantify the total, what you would call one-time-ish cash payments that are going to be absorbed in the guided free cash flow that we should not see on a regular basis? I mean, the $240 million-$255 million, is that with these restructuring payments, without the restructuring payments, and how should someone be thinking about the cash flow when they move into 2027? Because pretty strong, even with a bunch of these one-time-ish stuff.

Mike Burwell

Yeah. Shlomo, the numbers that we guided to for the full year include those payments.

Shlomo Rosenbaum

Okay

Mike Burwell

in those numbers overall, which just to remind back is $300 million over the second half of the year. We increased it as part of our improved guidance for the full year by roughly $8 million in terms of delivering it, and it does capture the spend associated with it. Look, right now we're continuing to drive our one-time items down. That's been our stated goal and consistently, and going back to our overall capital allocation view, which is first is make sure we're paying down our debt, and that we're getting it below 3 times, and that's generally from that cash. The NIQ GfK integration is really behind us, so that really winds itself down. The 2026 program is efficient, and really kind of picking up on Jim's comments back. We're going to continue to look at efficiencies across the business with one-year paybacks.

Mike Burwell

I think it's just a prudent thing to do. We're going to continue to evaluate those types of items. I think it's difficult to say with any certainty at this point. We'll talk about 2027 when we've firmed up those plans to it. But we're going to be smart about it. We've had a people-intensive business, and we've got great people, but we may not need as many, and so as we have turnover, we may not be filling those spots in terms of thinking about it going forward. Not all actions carry OTIs, and so that's what we'll continue to evaluate. I'm trying to give you as much color as I can, Shlomo, in terms of thinking about it. Hopefully, that's helpful.

Shlomo Rosenbaum

Okay, thanks. What I'm trying to bridge and think about the guidance versus the last quarter on the revenue side, just in general, how much of the guidance change is FX versus how much is the acquisition that you've made? It looks like you raised the organic by 20 to 30 basis points. But beyond that, could you give us a little more color so we can kind of track FX changes?

Mike Burwell

The FX impacts, when you look at Q2, obviously we are way down from where if you looked at it in the prior years. Q2, America's impact from FX was 3%, EMEA was 2%, APAC was basically flat. They were pretty really minor FX impacts in Q2. And right now based on when we are looking at the forward rates, we do not see a big FX impacts really through the rest of the year. As opposed to Q2 of 2025 when FX was jumping around pretty good with some of the policies that were happening in the world. That is what I would say.

Shlomo Rosenbaum

Okay. Thank you.

Mike Burwell

Thanks, Lemuel.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Jason Haas with Wells Fargo. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Jason Haas

Hey, good afternoon, and thanks for taking my question. I am curious if you could give us a sense for what percentage of your data is now available for MCP consumption, and what does the pricing model look for that? Are you charging customers more for access to the data via an MCP? Is there a consumption-based pricing model there? If you just unpack that a bit. Thanks.

Jim Peck

Yeah. I will just, Jim, we will start with pricing. We are going to be experimenting with several different kinds of pricing models. Some are consumption-based, some are not. I think that is as far as I will probably take that one right now, because I am sure we will be explaining to that more and more as we learn. But we know the demand is there, and that is part of these charters that we are doing. They are just the beginning of an engagement with these clients to see how much value we are creating inside their world, which we believe is going to be very meaningful and big TAM for us. Troy, I do not know if you want to give more about the actual data that is touchable?

Troy Treangen

Yeah. Our product for MCP consumption, that is Optiq Bridge. That is the product that we announced at C360. It is being launched in full product mode here at the very beginning of September with our official launch. We are in beta right now. The data that is in there is primarily U.S. in beta mode, but we have releases scheduled throughout the rest of this year to get all of our retail measurement around the world. Also our consumer panel data as access through that mechanism. So that is part of the product launch, like I said, in early September. Then continue to have releases every few weeks with the goal to get ultimately all of our data assets set up through the core platform, but across NIQ.

Jason Haas

Okay, that is great to hear. As a follow-up, it sounded like you teased a product that is going to track agentic commerce measurement, I think is what you referred to. Can you just explain what that is? I am trying to envision when consumer shop agentically, how are you going to go about collecting that data? Thanks.

Troy Treangen

Yes, we will. I think you guys know agentic commerce is an emerging channel. We measure the market, so we will be having products that we will be launching here that cover that channel as it is just another channel. Within that, though, we are also going to measure share of prompt, share of discovery. We will also have share of accuracy of those results, clicks, and then ultimately conversion. That is the product that I guess I teased a little bit. More to come shortly.

Jason Haas

Okay. We will look out for that. Thank you.

Operator

Your final question comes from the line of Jeff Meuler with Baird. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Jeff Meuler

Yeah, thank you. Can you just go into more detail on the retailer monetization opportunity? My understanding is that historically it has been more of a value exchange and you are getting data, so you are monetizing the retailer side of the equation less. But is that changing because there is an opportunity for you to provide significantly more value for them through the AI solutions and other things you have been doing as part of the transformation?

Jim Peck

Yes. The short answer is yes. It is not just AI, it is the consumer panels, it is other data sets that we do not necessarily highlight in these calls. As they are trying to build their own, let us say, right to win in agentic commerce, they are seeing the value of having the kinds of information we have about characteristics of products, understanding consumers better. These are the big players, where there has been more of an exchange, I think, is what you are calling it, of trade and barter or whatever you want to call it. We also are seeing good engagement with mid-size to smaller players who are also going to be able to make use of our tools.

Jim Peck

I think our value with these clients is just increasing just like they are with the CPGs and the tech and durable guys based on the kinds of data we have and now the more use cases that they can apply it to. Agentic commerce is still figuring itself out, but we are right in the middle of that, and we are kind of learning with them as we go. Our conversations now are much more strategic versus transactional. Then they are saying, "Wow, I did not realize you could do this." That is driving more penetration in almost every retailer.

Jeff Meuler

Got it. On the AI monetization strategy, I get that it is going to be evolving, and you are going to be experimenting, and you are focused on driving adoption. On these early adopters, is there some sort of short duration trial period where they are capped on volumes, or there is heavily discounted pricing, and then at some point in 2027, it flips to more normal monetization levels? How should we think about that?

Jim Peck

We are very interested, that is the right word, in ensuring that they do use the tools, and they do see the power of the tools right away. Not getting somehow caught up in some of the way the LLMs are doing their thing, which are scaring folks and using too many tokens or whatever, right? Our experimentation is at first saying, is it generating the value for them? Then we have various ways, based on all the different kinds of work we do with them anyway, on contract negotiations or otherwise, where we can say, "If you want to continue using these kinds of tools, of course, there will be the compensation for us for you to use them." That is the way you should think about the consumption base. That comes really in two ways.

Jim Peck

One is using it online and transacting, or having access to our information through, let's call them APIs, where they can get at our data, but then they pay for it for that particular use case for that particular point in time.

Jeff Meuler

Got it. Thanks, Jim.

Jim Peck

You are welcome.

Operator

There are no further questions.

Jim Peck

Okay, great. Thank you all for joining. It has been about a year now since our IPO, and certainly, the world has changed quite a bit, and I think we have anticipated some of it, reacted to some of it. You are seeing it not only in our results financially, but in the way we are able to talk about our business with real-world examples of what we are doing to serve our clients in this world where we are providing both the Full View and these AI capabilities to become even more relevant. We look forward to the next call.

Operator

This concludes today's call. Thank you for attending. You may now disconnect.

Investor releaseQuarter not tagged2026-08-05

RCAT Gears Up to Report Q2 Earnings: Here's What Investors Should Know

Zacks
Red Cat Holdings, Inc. RCAT is scheduled to report second-quarter 2026 results on Aug. 6, after market close. Over the trailing four quarters, Red Cat’s earnings missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate, with an average negative surprise of 56%. Red Cat Holdings, Inc. price-eps-surprise | Red Cat Holdings, Inc. Quote The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the company’s revenues is set at $22.3 million, a massive upsurge from the year-ago quarter’s $3.2 million. It marks 592.7% year-over-year whopping growth. We have identified several factors that have led to the dramatic acceleration of the top line. During the first-quarter 2026 earnings call, Jeffrey Thompson, the CEO, noted that the U.S. Department of War intends to spend the $156-billion 2025 defense reconciliation bill in fiscal 2026, with $30 billion obligated through April. Government spending of this magnitude is expected to provide a significant boost to the top line. We expect the Teal Black Widow’s $700-million pipeline fueled by U.S. Army contracts to have supported revenue growth in the second quarter of 2026. The operational Valdosta factory has the potential of nearly $150 million in sales during the year, which is likely to have strengthened RCAT growth pillars. The consensus estimate for loss per share is pinned at 21 cents, whereas it incurred a loss of 14 cents in the year-ago quarter. An upsurge in operating expenses induced by rapid scaling, heavy investment in research and development, and increasing holding costs due to heavy prepaid inventory balances are components likely to have dragged the bottom line. Our proven model does not conclusively predict an earnings beat for Red Cat this time around. The combination of a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold) increases the odds of an earnings beat. But that is not the case here. You can uncover the best stocks before they are reported with our Earnings ESP Filter. RCAT has an Earnings ESP of -1.61% and a Zacks Rank of 3 at present. Here are a few stocks from the broader Business Services sector, which, according to our model, have the right combination of elements to beat on earnings this time around. Nayax Ltd. NYAX: The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the company’s second-quarter 2026 revenues is $120.5 million, indicating 26.1% year-over-year growth. For earnings, the consensus estimate is pinned at 9 cents per…Read full document

Red Cat Holdings, Inc. RCAT is scheduled to report second-quarter 2026 results on Aug. 6, after market close. Over the trailing four quarters, Red Cat’s earnings missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate, with an average negative surprise of 56%. Red Cat Holdings, Inc. price-eps-surprise | Red Cat Holdings, Inc. Quote The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the company’s revenues is set at $22.3 million, a massive upsurge from the year-ago quarter’s $3.2 million. It marks 592.7% year-over-year whopping growth. We have identified several factors that have led to the dramatic acceleration of the top line. During the first-quarter 2026 earnings call, Jeffrey Thompson, the CEO, noted that the U.S. Department of War intends to spend the $156-billion 2025 defense reconciliation bill in fiscal 2026, with $30 billion obligated through April. Government spending of this magnitude is expected to provide a significant boost to the top line. We expect the Teal Black Widow’s $700-million pipeline fueled by U.S. Army contracts to have supported revenue growth in the second quarter of 2026. The operational Valdosta factory has the potential of nearly $150 million in sales during the year, which is likely to have strengthened RCAT growth pillars. The consensus estimate for loss per share is pinned at 21 cents, whereas it incurred a loss of 14 cents in the year-ago quarter. An upsurge in operating expenses induced by rapid scaling, heavy investment in research and development, and increasing holding costs due to heavy prepaid inventory balances are components likely to have dragged the bottom line. Our proven model does not conclusively predict an earnings beat for Red Cat this time around. The combination of a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold) increases the odds of an earnings beat. But that is not the case here. You can uncover the best stocks before they are reported with our Earnings ESP Filter. RCAT has an Earnings ESP of -1.61% and a Zacks Rank of 3 at present. Here are a few stocks from the broader Business Services sector, which, according to our model, have the right combination of elements to beat on earnings this time around. Nayax Ltd. NYAX: The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the company’s second-quarter 2026 revenues is $120.5 million, indicating 26.1% year-over-year growth. For earnings, the consensus estimate is pinned at 9 cents per share, plunging 43.8% from the year-ago quarter. Over the four trailing quarters, the company surpassed earnings in two quarters and missed in the remaining two, with a negative average earnings surprise of 2.4%. NYAX has an Earnings ESP of +7.14% and a Zacks Rank of 3 at present. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here. The company is scheduled to announce second-quarter 2026 results on Aug. 10. NIQ Global Intelligence plc NIQ: The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the company’s second-quarter 2026 revenues is $1.1 billion, hinting at a 6.4% increase from the year-ago quarter’s actual. For earnings, the consensus estimate is pegged at 21 cents per share, suggesting a more than 100% rally from the year-ago quarter’s reported number. The company surpassed earnings estimates in the first quarter of 2026 by 50%. NIQ has an Earnings ESP of +1.94% and a Zacks Rank of 3 at present. The company is scheduled to announce second-quarter 2026 results on Aug. 10. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Red Cat Holdings, Inc. (RCAT) : Free Stock Analysis Report NIQ Global Intelligence plc (NIQ) : Free Stock Analysis Report Nayax Ltd. (NYAX) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com). Zacks Investment Research

Investor releaseQuarter not tagged2026-08-04

Canadian Natural to Report Q2 Earnings: What's in the Offing?

Zacks
Canadian Natural Resources Limited CNQ is set to release second-quarter 2026 results on Aug. 6. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for earnings is pegged at $1.43 per share on revenues of $9.25 billion. Let us delve into the factors that might have influenced CNQ’s performance in the to-be-reported quarter. Before that, it is worth taking a look at the company’s performance in the last reported quarter. In the last reported quarter, the Calgary-based oil and gas equipment and services company’s earnings beat the consensus mark due to strong operational performance and higher realized natural gas prices. CNQ reported adjusted earnings per share of 85 cents, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 74 cents. Total revenues of $7.9 billion increased from $7.6 billion in the prior-year period, fueled by increased production volumes. The company’s earnings beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in each of the trailing four quarters, delivering an average surprise of 14.23%. This is depicted in the chart below: Canadian Natural Resources Limited price-eps-surprise | Canadian Natural Resources Limited Quote The Zacks Consensus Estimate for second-quarter 2026 earnings has remained unchanged over the past seven days, with no upward revisions and one downward movement. The estimated figure indicates an 180.39% year-over-year increase. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenues implies a 47.16% increase from the year-ago period. CNQ’s total revenues are likely to have increased in the quarter to be reported. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for second-quarter revenues is expected to have increased from the year-ago quarter’s level. Unlike shale producers that depend on rapid drilling, CNQ generates stable production from long-life assets. Canadian Natural Resources' second-quarter results are likely to benefit from higher realized prices for its premium Synthetic Crude Oil (“SCO”). The geopolitical tensions in the Middle East lifted global crude benchmarks during the quarter, while CNQ's oil sands mining and upgrading business produces SCO, which typically commands a premium to WTI. Given that synthetic crude accounts for a significant portion of the company's liquids production, stronger SCO realizations are likely to have supported revenues, margins and cash flows in the quarter. On the bearish side, higher costs are expected to have dented CNQ's bottom line. Canadian Natural Resour…Read full document

Canadian Natural Resources Limited CNQ is set to release second-quarter 2026 results on Aug. 6. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for earnings is pegged at $1.43 per share on revenues of $9.25 billion. Let us delve into the factors that might have influenced CNQ’s performance in the to-be-reported quarter. Before that, it is worth taking a look at the company’s performance in the last reported quarter. In the last reported quarter, the Calgary-based oil and gas equipment and services company’s earnings beat the consensus mark due to strong operational performance and higher realized natural gas prices. CNQ reported adjusted earnings per share of 85 cents, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 74 cents. Total revenues of $7.9 billion increased from $7.6 billion in the prior-year period, fueled by increased production volumes. The company’s earnings beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in each of the trailing four quarters, delivering an average surprise of 14.23%. This is depicted in the chart below: Canadian Natural Resources Limited price-eps-surprise | Canadian Natural Resources Limited Quote The Zacks Consensus Estimate for second-quarter 2026 earnings has remained unchanged over the past seven days, with no upward revisions and one downward movement. The estimated figure indicates an 180.39% year-over-year increase. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenues implies a 47.16% increase from the year-ago period. CNQ’s total revenues are likely to have increased in the quarter to be reported. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for second-quarter revenues is expected to have increased from the year-ago quarter’s level. Unlike shale producers that depend on rapid drilling, CNQ generates stable production from long-life assets. Canadian Natural Resources' second-quarter results are likely to benefit from higher realized prices for its premium Synthetic Crude Oil (“SCO”). The geopolitical tensions in the Middle East lifted global crude benchmarks during the quarter, while CNQ's oil sands mining and upgrading business produces SCO, which typically commands a premium to WTI. Given that synthetic crude accounts for a significant portion of the company's liquids production, stronger SCO realizations are likely to have supported revenues, margins and cash flows in the quarter. On the bearish side, higher costs are expected to have dented CNQ's bottom line. Canadian Natural Resources' first-quarter total costs and expenses were 15.4% higher than the prior-year quarter’s reported figure, and this upward trend is expected to have persisted in the quarter to be reported. We expect total costs and expenses to have increased year over year in the second quarter, following an increase in the first quarter. Higher production costs, transportation expenses, depletion, depreciation and amortization, administration expenses, share-based compensation, and interest and other financing expenses, coupled with ongoing inflationary pressures, might have continued to pressure margins. Our proven Zacks model does not conclusively predict an earnings beat for CNQ this time around. The combination of a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold) increases the chances of an earnings beat. However, this is not the case here. Earnings ESP of CNQ: Earnings ESP, which represents the difference between the Most Accurate Estimate and the Zacks Consensus Estimate, for this company is 0.00%. You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before they’re reported with our Earnings ESP Filter. CNQ’s Zacks Rank: CNQ currently carries a Zacks Rank #3. Here are a few firms from other sectors that you may want to consider, as these have the right combination of elements to post an earnings beat this reporting cycle. Alcon ALC has an Earnings ESP of +3.13% and a Zacks Rank #3. The firm is scheduled to release earnings on Aug. 10, 2026. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here. Alcon is a global eye care company that develops and manufactures surgical equipment, contact lenses and vision care products for patients and eye care professionals worldwide. The company's earnings beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in three of the last four quarters and missed it in the other one, delivering an average surprise of 3.66%. Ferguson Enterprises Inc. FERG has an Earnings ESP of +1.22% and a Zacks Rank #3. The firm is scheduled to release earnings on Aug. 10, 2026. Ferguson is a leading value-added distributor of plumbing, HVAC, waterworks and other infrastructure products serving residential and commercial customers. It operates primarily in North America. Fergusonis valued at $45.45 billion. NIQ Global Intelligence plc NIQ has an Earnings ESP of +1.94% and a Zacks Rank #3. The firm is scheduled to release earnings on Aug. 10. NIQ Global Intelligence is a consumer intelligence company that provides market measurement, analytics and insights to help businesses understand consumer behavior and make data-driven decisions. The company is valued at $3.30 billion. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Canadian Natural Resources Limited (CNQ) : Free Stock Analysis Report Alcon (ALC) : Free Stock Analysis Report NIQ Global Intelligence plc (NIQ) : Free Stock Analysis Report Ferguson plc (FERG) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com). Zacks Investment Research

Investor releaseQuarter not tagged2026-08-03

NIQ Global Intelligence plc (NIQ) Earnings Expected to Grow: What to Know Ahead of Next Week's Release

Zacks
NIQ Global Intelligence plc (NIQ) is expected to deliver a year-over-year increase in earnings on higher revenues when it reports results for the quarter ended June 2026. This widely-known consensus outlook gives a good sense of the company's earnings picture, but how the actual results compare to these estimates is a powerful factor that could impact its near-term stock price. The earnings report, which is expected to be released on August 10, might help the stock move higher if these key numbers are better than expectations. On the other hand, if they miss, the stock may move lower. While the sustainability of the immediate price change and future earnings expectations will mostly depend on management's discussion of business conditions on the earnings call, it's worth handicapping the probability of a positive EPS surprise. This company is expected to post quarterly earnings of $0.21 per share in its upcoming report, which represents a year-over-year change of +1150%. Revenues are expected to be $1.11 billion, up 6.4% from the year-ago quarter. The consensus EPS estimate for the quarter has remained unchanged over the last 30 days. This is essentially a reflection of how the covering analysts have collectively reassessed their initial estimates over this period. Investors should keep in mind that an aggregate change may not always reflect the direction of estimate revisions by each of the covering analysts. Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise Estimate revisions ahead of a company's earnings release offer clues to the business conditions for the period whose results are coming out. Our proprietary surprise prediction model -- the Zacks Earnings ESP (Expected Surprise Prediction) -- has this insight at its core. The Zacks Earnings ESP compares the Most Accurate Estimate to the Zacks Consensus Estimate for the quarter; the Most Accurate Estimate is a more recent version of the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate. The idea here is that analysts revising their estimates right before an earnings release have the latest information, which could potentially be more accurate than what they and others contributing to the consensus had predicted earlier. Thus, a positive or negative Earnings ESP reading theoretically indicates the likely deviation of the actual earnings from the consensus estimate. However, the model's predictive power is significant for positive ESP reading…Read full document

NIQ Global Intelligence plc (NIQ) is expected to deliver a year-over-year increase in earnings on higher revenues when it reports results for the quarter ended June 2026. This widely-known consensus outlook gives a good sense of the company's earnings picture, but how the actual results compare to these estimates is a powerful factor that could impact its near-term stock price. The earnings report, which is expected to be released on August 10, might help the stock move higher if these key numbers are better than expectations. On the other hand, if they miss, the stock may move lower. While the sustainability of the immediate price change and future earnings expectations will mostly depend on management's discussion of business conditions on the earnings call, it's worth handicapping the probability of a positive EPS surprise. This company is expected to post quarterly earnings of $0.21 per share in its upcoming report, which represents a year-over-year change of +1150%. Revenues are expected to be $1.11 billion, up 6.4% from the year-ago quarter. The consensus EPS estimate for the quarter has remained unchanged over the last 30 days. This is essentially a reflection of how the covering analysts have collectively reassessed their initial estimates over this period. Investors should keep in mind that an aggregate change may not always reflect the direction of estimate revisions by each of the covering analysts. Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise Estimate revisions ahead of a company's earnings release offer clues to the business conditions for the period whose results are coming out. Our proprietary surprise prediction model -- the Zacks Earnings ESP (Expected Surprise Prediction) -- has this insight at its core. The Zacks Earnings ESP compares the Most Accurate Estimate to the Zacks Consensus Estimate for the quarter; the Most Accurate Estimate is a more recent version of the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate. The idea here is that analysts revising their estimates right before an earnings release have the latest information, which could potentially be more accurate than what they and others contributing to the consensus had predicted earlier. Thus, a positive or negative Earnings ESP reading theoretically indicates the likely deviation of the actual earnings from the consensus estimate. However, the model's predictive power is significant for positive ESP readings only. A positive Earnings ESP is a strong predictor of an earnings beat, particularly when combined with a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold). Our research shows that stocks with this combination produce a positive surprise nearly 70% of the time, and a solid Zacks Rank actually increases the predictive power of Earnings ESP. Please note that a negative Earnings ESP reading is not indicative of an earnings miss. Our research shows that it is difficult to predict an earnings beat with any degree of confidence for stocks with negative Earnings ESP readings and/or Zacks Rank of 4 (Sell) or 5 (Strong Sell). For NIQ Global Intelligence plc, the Most Accurate Estimate is higher than the Zacks Consensus Estimate, suggesting that analysts have recently become bullish on the company's earnings prospects. This has resulted in an Earnings ESP of +1.94%. On the other hand, the stock currently carries a Zacks Rank of #3. So, this combination indicates that NIQ Global Intelligence plc will most likely beat the consensus EPS estimate. Analysts often consider to what extent a company has been able to match consensus estimates in the past while calculating their estimates for its future earnings. So, it's worth taking a look at the surprise history for gauging its influence on the upcoming number. For the last reported quarter, it was expected that NIQ Global Intelligence plc would post earnings of $0.1 per share when it actually produced earnings of $0.15, delivering a surprise of +50.00%. Over the last four quarters, the company has beaten consensus EPS estimates just once. An earnings beat or miss may not be the sole basis for a stock moving higher or lower. Many stocks end up losing ground despite an earnings beat due to other factors that disappoint investors. Similarly, unforeseen catalysts help a number of stocks gain despite an earnings miss. That said, betting on stocks that are expected to beat earnings expectations does increase the odds of success. This is why it's worth checking a company's Earnings ESP and Zacks Rank ahead of its quarterly release. Make sure to utilize our Earnings ESP Filter to uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before they've reported. NIQ Global Intelligence plc appears a compelling earnings-beat candidate. However, investors should pay attention to other factors too for betting on this stock or staying away from it ahead of its earnings release. Stay on top of upcoming earnings announcements with the Zacks Earnings Calendar. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report NIQ Global Intelligence plc (NIQ) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com). Zacks Investment Research

Investor releaseQuarter not tagged2026-08-03

Cheniere Energy to Report Q2 Earnings: What's in the Offing?

Zacks
Cheniere Energy, Inc. LNG is set to release second-quarter 2026 results on Aug. 6.The Zacks Consensus Estimate for earnings is pegged at $2.80 per share on revenues of $5.03 billion. Let us delve into the factors that are likely to have influenced the liquefied natural gas (“LNG”) exporter’s performance in the to-be-reported quarter. But, before that, it is worth taking a look at Cheniere Energy’s performance in the previously reported quarter. In the last reported quarter, this Houston, TX-based oil and gas storage and transportation company beat estimates due to stronger operational execution and favorable LNG market conditions. Cheniere Energy posted adjusted earnings of $4.77 per share, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $3.91 by 22%. Moreover, the company’s quarterly revenues totaled $5.87 billion, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $5.70 billion by 3%. LNG’s earnings beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in three of the last four quarters and missed it in the remaining one, delivering an average surprise of 74.97%. This is depicted in the graph below: Cheniere Energy, Inc. price-eps-surprise | Cheniere Energy, Inc. Quote The Zacks Consensus Estimate for second-quarter 2026 earnings has witnessed one upward revision and no downward revisions in the past seven days. The estimated figure indicates a 61.64% year-over-year decrease. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenues indicates an 8.38% increase from the year-ago period. Cheniere generates most of its revenues by liquefying natural gas at the LNG terminals and charging customers fixed fees under long-term contracts for processing and exporting LNG. The company also earns additional income by marketing LNG and natural gas, benefiting from favorable price differences in global energy markets. LNG’s revenues are likely to have improved in the quarter to be reported. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for second-quarter revenues implies an increase from the year-ago quarter’s level. This can be attributed to the strong increase in LNG sales and LNG revenues from the liquefaction projects sold under third-party long-term contracts. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for LNG revenues implies an increase of 13.9% from the year-ago quarter’s level.  Additionally, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenues from liquefaction projects sold under third-party long-term contracts implies a 17.1% increase from the year-ago…Read full document

Cheniere Energy, Inc. LNG is set to release second-quarter 2026 results on Aug. 6.The Zacks Consensus Estimate for earnings is pegged at $2.80 per share on revenues of $5.03 billion. Let us delve into the factors that are likely to have influenced the liquefied natural gas (“LNG”) exporter’s performance in the to-be-reported quarter. But, before that, it is worth taking a look at Cheniere Energy’s performance in the previously reported quarter. In the last reported quarter, this Houston, TX-based oil and gas storage and transportation company beat estimates due to stronger operational execution and favorable LNG market conditions. Cheniere Energy posted adjusted earnings of $4.77 per share, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $3.91 by 22%. Moreover, the company’s quarterly revenues totaled $5.87 billion, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $5.70 billion by 3%. LNG’s earnings beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in three of the last four quarters and missed it in the remaining one, delivering an average surprise of 74.97%. This is depicted in the graph below: Cheniere Energy, Inc. price-eps-surprise | Cheniere Energy, Inc. Quote The Zacks Consensus Estimate for second-quarter 2026 earnings has witnessed one upward revision and no downward revisions in the past seven days. The estimated figure indicates a 61.64% year-over-year decrease. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenues indicates an 8.38% increase from the year-ago period. Cheniere generates most of its revenues by liquefying natural gas at the LNG terminals and charging customers fixed fees under long-term contracts for processing and exporting LNG. The company also earns additional income by marketing LNG and natural gas, benefiting from favorable price differences in global energy markets. LNG’s revenues are likely to have improved in the quarter to be reported. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for second-quarter revenues implies an increase from the year-ago quarter’s level. This can be attributed to the strong increase in LNG sales and LNG revenues from the liquefaction projects sold under third-party long-term contracts. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for LNG revenues implies an increase of 13.9% from the year-ago quarter’s level.  Additionally, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenues from liquefaction projects sold under third-party long-term contracts implies a 17.1% increase from the year-ago quarter’s level. Steady demand for U.S. LNG is likely to have supported Cheniere's exports. Europe continues to reduce its dependence on Russian gas, while Asian countries are expected to keep importing LNG to meet growing energy needs. This is likely to have kept demand for Cheniere's LNG shipments healthy and supported its earnings. Long-term customer contracts are expected to provide stable earnings. Unlike many energy companies, Cheniere sells most of its LNG through long-term agreements, which provide predictable revenues regardless of short-term swings in natural gas prices. This business model is likely to have supported steady cash generation in the second quarter. Rising expenses may, however, weigh on results. Cheniere’s first-quarter total costs and expenses were 108.7% higher than the prior-year quarter’s reported figure, and this upward trajectory is expected to have persisted in the quarter to be reported. We expect cost of sales to have increased year over year in the second quarter, following a 132.9% increase in the first quarter. Higher cost of sales and depreciation, amortization and accretion expenses, coupled with ongoing inflationary pressures, might have continued to pressure margins. Our proven model predicts an earnings beat for Cheniere this time. A stock needs to have a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold) to beat earnings. This is exactly the case here. Earnings ESP of LNG: Earnings ESP, which represents the difference between the Most Accurate Estimate and the Zacks Consensus Estimate, for this company is +3.69%. You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before they’re reported with our Earnings ESP Filter. LNG’s Zacks Rank: LNG currently carries a Zacks Rank #3. Here are a few firms from other sectors that you may want to consider, as these, too, have the right combination of elements to post an earnings beat this reporting cycle. Alcon ALC has an Earnings ESP of +3.13% and a Zacks Rank #3. The firm is scheduled to release earnings on Aug. 10, 2026. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here. Alcon is a global eye care company that develops and manufactures surgical equipment, contact lenses and vision care products for patients and eye care professionals worldwide. The company's earnings beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in three of the last four quarters and missed it in the other one, delivering an average surprise of 3.66%. Ferguson Enterprises Inc. FERG has an Earnings ESP of +1.22% and a Zacks Rank #3. The firm is scheduled to release earnings on Aug. 10, 2026. Ferguson is a leading value-added distributor of plumbing, HVAC, waterworks and other infrastructure products serving residential and commercial customers. It operates primarily in North America. Fergusonis valued at $45.45 billion. NIQ Global Intelligence plc NIQ has an Earnings ESP of +1.94% and a Zacks Rank #3. The firm is scheduled to release earnings on Aug. 10. NIQ Global Intelligence is a consumer intelligence company that provides market measurement, analytics and insights to help businesses understand consumer behavior and make data-driven decisions.  The company is valued at $3.30 billion. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Cheniere Energy, Inc. (LNG) : Free Stock Analysis Report Alcon (ALC) : Free Stock Analysis Report NIQ Global Intelligence plc (NIQ) : Free Stock Analysis Report Ferguson plc (FERG) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com). Zacks Investment Research

As of 2026-08-15 • Updated weeklySource: Earnings sourceIngestion runbook