TREE

It has been about a month since the last earnings report for Tree.com (TREE). Shares have lost about 10.9% in that time frame, underperforming the S&P 500. Will the recent negative trend continue leading up to its next earnings release, or is Tree.com due for a breakout? Before we dive into how investors and analysts have reacted as of late, let's take a quick look at the latest earnings report in order to get a better handle on the important drivers. LendingTree reported second-quarter 2026 adjusted net income per share of $1.27, which missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.46. The figure compares favorably with $1.13 reported in the prior-year quarter. Results were affected by a decline in Consumer segment revenues and higher total costs. However, growth in revenues and adjusted EBITDA, along with strong Insurance segment performance, supported the results to some extent. Results exclude certain non-recurring items. After considering these, TREE reported a GAAP net income of $9.6 million, or 68 cents per share, compared with $8.9 million, or 65 cents per share, in the year-ago quarter. Total revenues in the second quarter increased 25.3% year over year to $313.4 million. The reported figure missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $315.07 million by 0.5%. Total cost of revenues was $11.3 million, up 12.4% from the prior-year quarter. Total costs and expenses were $291.6 million, up 27.2% from the previous-year quarter. Adjusted EBITDA totaled $35.2 million, up 10.6% from the year-ago quarter. The variable marketing margin was $87.3 million, up 4.4%. As of June 30, 2026, cash and cash equivalents were $110.8 million compared with $85.5 million as of March 31, 2026. Long-term debt was $386.4 million compared with $387 million as of March 31, 2026. Home segment revenues increased 9% year over year to $43.9 million. Segment profit declined 14% year over year to $11.3 million. Consumer segment revenues decreased 4% year over year to $60.3 million. Segment profit fell 14% year over year to $27.6 million. Insurance segment revenues grew 42% year over year to $209.3 million. Segment profit increased 25% year over year to $50 million. Third-Quarter 2026 Total revenues are projected to be between $325 million and $335 million. Adjusted EBITDA is anticipated to be between $34 million and $36 million. The variable marketing margin is anticipated to be between $88 million and $93 million. 2026 Total revenues are expected to be between $1.30 billion and $1.32 billion compared with the prior range of $1.30 billion to $1.35 billion. Adjusted EBITDA is projected to be in the range of $145-$152 million compared with the previous range of $152-$162 million. The variable marketing margin is expected to be in the range of $364-$374 million compared with $378-$395 million previously. In the past month, investors have witnessed a downward trend in fresh estimates. Currently, Tree.com has a nice Growth Score of B, a score with the same score on the momentum front. Charting a somewhat similar path, the stock was allocated a score of A on the value side, putting it in the top 20% for this investment strategy. Overall, the stock has an aggregate VGM Score of A. If you aren't focused on one strategy, this score is the one you should be interested in. Estimates have been broadly trending downward for the stock, and the magnitude of these revisions indicates a downward shift. Interestingly, Tree.com has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). We expect an in-line return from the stock in the next few months. 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 LendingTree, Inc. (TREE) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com). Zacks Investment Research

Image source: The Motley Fool. Wednesday, July 29, 2026 at 4:30 p.m. ET Investor Relations - Andrew Wessel President and Chief Executive Officer - Scott Peyree Chief Financial Officer - Jason Bengel Operator: Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the LendingTree, Inc. Second Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. Please be advised today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Andrew Wessel. Please go ahead. Andrew Wessel: Thank you, Kevin, and hello to everyone joining us on the call to discuss LendingTree's second quarter 2026 financial results. On with us today are Scott Peyree, President and CEO; and Jason Bengel, CFO. This afternoon, we posted a detailed letter to shareholders on our Investor Relations website. We've also posted a new investor presentation that we would encourage everyone to look at. For the purposes of today's discussion, we will assume that listeners have gone through those materials and we'll focus on Q&A. Before I hand the call over to Scott for his remarks, I remind everyone that during this call, we may discuss LendingTree's expectations for future performance. Any forward-looking statements that we make are subject to risks and uncertainties, and LendingTree's actual results could differ materially from the views expressed today. Many, but not all of the risks we face are described in our periodic reports filed with the SEC. We will also discuss a variety of non-GAAP measures on the call, and I refer you to today's press release and shareholder letter, both available on our website for the comparable GAAP definitions and full reconciliations of non-GAAP measures to GAAP. With that, Scott, please go ahead. Scott Peyree: Thank you, Andrew, and thank you, everyone, for joining the call today. We had a good quarter with strong growth led by insurance, our insurance business. Revenue was up 25% year-over-year, and our adjusted EBITDA was up 11% year-over-year. Also, I'd like to call out that our adjusted EBITDA as a percentage of VMD was up 225 basis points year-over-year to 40%, steadily moving toward our 45% to 50% long-term goal on that important metric. Stepping back for a second, from 2023 to 2026, we have roughly doubled our revenue and adjusted EBITDA, showing extremely consistent growth and consistency. Our diversity of product lines in this company has supported resilient and consistent growth regardless of certain industries such as mortgage being in a multiyear trough due to high interest rates. Insurance is the standout. Revenue was up 42% and segment profit was up 25% year-on-year on strong carrier demand. In our Home business, revenue was up 9% year-over-year and our segment profit was up 13% sequentially. I feel we are continuing to perform well in what remains near trough earnings power from a macro environment with high interest rates, continuing to provide strong products to a strong client base and positioned well for long-term growth as that industry comes back. Our OpEx held flat year-over-year, both AI-driven efficiency and just what I would call operational efficiency in general is converting growth into earnings. We're sitting on very strong free cash flow, approximately $80 million after interest per year. Our net leverage improved to 1.9 from 3.0 a year ago. Whereas debt paydown does remain a strong focus of the business, we are now in a position and at comfortable levels from a debt ratio perspective where we are also looking at other strategic uses of our free cash flow. From a product and AI momentum standpoint, we're gaining -- we're continuing to gain momentum on our North Star initiatives. In Q2 alone, we rolled out a ChatGPT app called the Home Loan Rate Confidence tool. We're offering 6 new products to consumers such as pet insurance, commercial insurance and financial advising. Our homepage and navigation redesign is proving 11% performance increase in sessions and 18% form starts off of our homepage. Voice AI continues to roll out across multiple products. We've added AI overviews within our product offering pages to help consumers more efficiently choose the right offer, which is showing positive performance. Now hitting specifically on our Consumer segment and more specifically calling out our SMB lending business and the softness there. Now to start with, SMB has been a major growth engine for us over the past 2 to 3 years. We've had 40% year-over-year profit growth on average since early 2024. In Q2, as we alluded to in the last earnings call, we saw some headwinds coming in this industry due to Middle East tension, energy price spikes, et cetera, making small business owners more cautious in general. And in all honesty, demand came in softer than we forecast, which drove the miss. Softness was initially driven by both merchant sentiment and lender pullback. I will say the lenders have largely come back and are writing and offering loans at similar levels to early Q1, but merchant sentiment does remain soft. Looking back at the SMB business in general, we've made significant investments into our SMB business over the past few years. We've invested in growing the strongest sales force in the industry, growing our lender network and our internal platforms to make quoting more efficient for our sales team and our merchants, myriad AI efficiencies and growing traffic sources generating more and more high-quality merchants looking for loans. Those investments have generated significant profitable growth over the past 2 to 3 years, and we expect them to continue to provide profitable growth in the future. If you look at our original internal SMB budget we set at the beginning of the year, which, by the way, I'll call out in Q1 of this year, we actually outperformed to that budget. If we would have hit that original budget for the entire year, we would be performing at the high end of the previous guidance we set. We feel the merchant sentiment issues are temporary and macro driven. They're not competitive or structural and fully expect to be back to growth and setting revenue and VMD records in the near future. The long-term macro outlook for the SMB industry remains very strong in our opinion. We're seeing some encouraging signs already, improving closing rates, larger loan requests, favorable underwriting shifts. July will be our best sales month since Q1. Performance in July gives us confidence that Q2 was our trough, and we have entered the recovery period. Expect stabilization, I'd say, through the second half of the year, SMB to eventually recover and surpass our Q1 record levels. We'll keep monitoring and update investors as that trend develops. Hitting on to our strategy, which remains unchanged, to become the #1 destination to shop for financial products. We have a massive focus over the next few years on return customers, referred customers and login user growth. This will create an even stronger and more durable business over the long run for LendingTree. AI is a real structural tailwind to make this happen, not just efficiency, but consumer-facing, such as the ChatGPT app, a rate confidence tool, AI for communication, be it voice or text or e-mail, AI offer overviews, all driving increased engagement in applications, and we feel there is a laundry list of additional things we can build over the next few years that will create even better customer engagement. Internal AI tools such as AI agents we've built on our data infrastructure for marketing team, sales team, finance team is actively compressing what was previously weeks' worth of work into real-time information, which is providing real efficiencies in the business. One of the key reasons OpEx grew less than 1%, while our revenue grew by 25% year-over-year. Our business model is highly cash generative and capital light. Like I said earlier, approximately $80 million in annual free cash flow after interest with minimal CapEx. Our balance sheet is getting more and more flexible with our leverage down to 1.9x, which gives us capacity for debt paydown, for buybacks and accretive M&A. Insurance remains a core strength. Again, SMB's softness is temporary and not macro -- sorry, temporary macro, not structural. And bottom line, long-term growth profile is intact. We've got a durable, high-margin, capital-efficient, increasingly AI-powered business. With that, I'll hand it over to Q&A. Operator: Our first question comes from Ryan Tomasello with KBW. Ryan Tomasello: Apologies, still juggling a few things with the release here. But maybe just to start off, if you could put some guardrails around what the second half guidance assumes across the various segments from both a revenue and variable margin standpoint? And then as a follow-up to that, regarding the lower variable margins specifically in the Insurance segment. If you could just elaborate on the specific drivers there and what you're baking into the second half on the margin front for insurance. Jason Bengel: Yes, Ryan, it's Jason. So I'm happy to talk through the guidance assumptions here. And like Scott said, if you take a big step back and look at the midpoint of our guidance, that does look at us doubling -- almost doubling EBITDA in the last 3 years and growing 12% this year. And like Scott said, if SMB had performed as expected according to budget, we would be at the high end of the prior guide. And to be totally transparent, we beat budget by almost 15% in small business in Q1. So the trajectory was very, very strong for small business until the headwinds presented. So just talking a bit about each segment here. Home, rates have been going up. So that's a bit more of a headwind. Margin has been down. It's -- I would say it's below what we consider normal historically. And that's just a function of home sales being 4 million units. There just aren't that many borrowers out there and the competition for those borrowers is just very, very high. So with home, I think long term, there's still a lot of upside in home. And I think margins would normalize when the market returns, but we're just -- we're not contemplating any real upside in the guide with home. Margins sort of where they are now. Consumer, like we said, SMB had real headwinds. We talked about that on the call quite a bit, and we saw this coming. It was just much worse than what we expected. So Q2 definitely underperformed our expectations. There was just a large drop in lender appetite and merchant demand, like Scott said, things like loan size, close rate, volume were just far below even our lowered expectations. But we've seen signs of improvement there. So lender demand has started to recover. But on the merchant side, it's still just not where it needs to be. It's -- there's a long way to go in merchant sentiment. And so the guide is only -- is only really looking at what we have line of sight into. And so we're really only contemplating that return of lender demand that we've seen today. And so that will result in sequential improvement in consumer revenue in VMD, but it's just not -- it's not back to sort of SMB won't be back to Q1 levels that we were seeing before. This was our growth engine. Like I said, it was growing 40% a year on average. And now for this year, it's looking like we might be flat to down. The good news is that should really be temporary. There's nothing structurally wrong with the business. We operate very, very well in that business and the market opportunity is really strong. So that will recover. Once merchant sentiment returns, that will return to being a very, very strong growth driver for us. We're very optimistic with small business. But with the guide, we're just -- we're not assuming any real return from what we have direct line of sight into today. With insurance, the backdrop is still very favorable. Carrier profitability is very strong. Competition for policies is very strong. So that helps us in the partner demand, but it does pressure immediate costs. And so that's kind of what you see coming through in margin. So we do expect, I would say, healthy growth in the second half for insurance. I think we're very happy with how insurance is doing, and we expect that to continue going forward. Scott Peyree: And this is Scott. Just to add on. As we've always historically been, our first goal on insurance as growth is like overall VMD growth. And that's -- and that's what we plan to continue to see through. It's been very strong in the first half of the year. We continue to see growth next year. And also, as we've talked about before, if you look at our Consumer segment from a margin perspective, small business is within the Consumer segment is by far our highest margin business. So when that's suppressed, it does -- it will inevitably affect the overall margins in the consumer business. Ryan Tomasello: Appreciate all that color, guys. And maybe just double-clicking on insurance, Scott, I guess several-part question here. One, the mid-20s variable margins, I think you posted in the quarter, is that a good assumption for kind of a new run rate here in this environment? And then as you look out to what you're seeing with carriers, how confident are you that the insurance business can continue to grow VMD off of what you're assuming for the second half of this year into 2027? And then just given the tenure you have in this space, Scott, if you can just talk about what leading indicators you tend to focus on for signs that the cycle may be peaking and when we might start to see those signals emerging? Scott Peyree: Okay. I guess just to hit on a few of those. I mean, I would start like -- starting with like the leading indicators from a macro level. I mean, you would first start at the top level, just the insurance industry profitability in general. And there's a number of massive public companies out there. So you have a very good outlook into like what the general profitability of the business is. And it is a very stable, profitable environment. And then the secondary signals below that, I would say if you're seeing trends of carriers either increasing pricing giving rate or taking rate, which is essentially either giving pricing, increasing pricing or reducing pricing. Because from a company like ours, where we're very shopper dependent, we want shoppers coming through the network, when you have environments where pricing is changing for policies, that drives more shoppers, obviously. So as I said in earlier calls, a bit -- the early part of the recovery was all about our insurers even willing to offer insurance policies to consumers. That's largely -- we're now to the point where insurance is healthy and they're offering insurance policies to everyone. So now we'll be looking at indicators of coming up in the next year or 2, are they going to start giving rate back to the consumers, which means they're reducing pricing, which will drive another shopping cycle. But I would say, as we look at the environment today, it is an extremely stable environment from an insurance industry standpoint, and there is strong demand and fighting over market share from some of the top companies in the industry. So it's -- I would call it very healthy and stable and growth is largely dependent on us executing well as a company, driving a lot of active shoppers to our network, which I think we're very good at doing. Andrew Wessel: Margin, VMM. Scott Peyree: And then the VMM margins, yes, I would say, like I said, first, our primary goal is VMD. Like some of these carriers the dollars they're spending are so high and growing so fast. You're starting with overall VMD and you want to make sure you're providing the best highest quality product to them. So I would say as we look at this -- since this is just still in such a growth mode as we're looking through the second half of the year, yes, I would expect margins to be probably similar to where they were at in Q2 with VMD hopefully growing a little bit sequentially. And yes, and again, I think it's kind of when that super high revenue growth levels out is when you really start leaning into more of the VMM growth. But I think we're going to see strong revenue growth throughout the rest of this year in insurance. Hopefully, that answers all your questions. Operator: Our next question comes from Jed Kelly with Oppenheimer. Jed Kelly: Just circling back to the Consumer segment. We're kind of trying to track the health of like your small business product. Is it more -- are they kind of more sensitive to gas prices? Or is it more interest rates? Or is it a combination? And then just circling around your personal loans, some of the bank earnings we've heard and the health of the consumer, it seems pretty stable. So can you just talk about where we are with personal loans? And then I have a follow-up. Scott Peyree: Okay. Yes, Jed. I'll just -- I'll hit on personal loans briefly. I would say, yes, I would echo that sentiment. Personal loans is a fairly stable business right now for us. A similar amount of revenue and consumer shopping for personal loans and whatnot. Not a lot of change there year-over-year. On the small business side, I think specifically on that, I would say, I think it starts more at a sentiment level than an interest rate sensitivity level. And I think there's a lot of these -- and I'm pontificating here a little bit, but like a lot of these smaller and medium-sized businesses, they're kind of on the front lines of when you're seeing consumer sentiment change and people complaining about gas prices and maybe tightening their wallets on stuff they might spend with a lot of small businesses. And then that translates into a small business for example, saying like, I was going to hire those 4 people that maybe I won't or I was going to spend $100,000 on that capital equipment that maybe I won't or at least I shouldn't say won't just like hold off on. That's why we call it temporary because I think it's just a lot of right now, there's a smaller number of merchants like requesting loans. And then you look at the average loan size, the loan size they're requesting is generally smaller than we historically see. And we've been doing this for a long time. So we've got good history here. And then I would say -- and then there's a general lower percentage of people then accepting the loan offers they're getting. And I don't think that's rate sensitivity as much as just macro sentiment of like maybe I'll just hold off -- maybe I'll get a little bit less money or just hold off for another few months before I do this, just make sure we don't earn in some major war, et cetera, et cetera. So that's where I say that's where we have -- I mean -- and this isn't just us alone. This is like all of our big clients, lenders in the small lending space, some of our competitors/frenemies. I mean I think everyone has seen a lot of the softness in Q2, but everyone just believes it's going to come roaring back here sooner rather than later. Jed Kelly: Okay. And then... Jason Bengel: Sorry, I was just going to tack on with PL. We -- in this environment, sequentially, PL performed very well. PL was definitely a strong grower from Q1 to Q2. So it's not like this environment has really held back PL moving sequentially. Jed Kelly: Got it. And then just as a follow-up, I see some news about Google this arbitration, Google case. Can you give us an update on where you stand and how you kind of view that arbitration process? Jason Bengel: Yes. So with Google, we're aware of lawsuits and arbitration claims against Google related to federal court rulings that the company illegally monopolized online search and search advertising. Advertiser customers of Google are -- they're actively joining together for arbitration and other proceedings. And we joined one such group. We've initiated a request for arbitration this year, and we filed the group's demand motion on July 17. And we directed about $2.8 billion to Google through the impacted period dating back about a decade, and we continue to pay Google for advertising today. And that time frame is really what would be used to assess the damages through the arbitration process. And so we believe Google's overcharge accounted for a significant portion of our overall spend during the relevant period, which would be the basis for our right to damages. So we're currently engaged with an expert economist to size out the potential damages. And I think one other important call out is with regard to tax. With the tax, there's a lot of moving parts, very complicated, but we do have tax attributes. You can see in the 10-K that we expect that we can use to reduce tax liabilities on any future taxable income, including any possible recovery amount from Google. We have tax-effected NOLs. We have R&D tax credits, interest carryforwards. When you look at all these attributes together, we expect them to be able to offset a substantial portion of federal income tax otherwise payable on future taxable income of around $300 million. So hopefully, that gives you an overview. Operator: Our next question comes from Mike Grondahl with Northland. Mike Grondahl: Just 2 questions on small business. That business has grown a ton. It's still within consumer. But can you speak to just like what percent of revenue, what percent of adjusted EBITDA comes from that, just so we can size it a little bit better? And secondly, related to that, it sounds like lender demand -- I don't know if the word is collapsed, but lender demand was really, really weak. It really wasn't customer demand. It was just the lenders pulled back hard. Am I hearing that right? Jason Bengel: Yes. So it's really 2 factors that happened. It was both on the lender side and on what we call the merchant side. So the small business is looking for cash, we call those merchants. So what really happened was lenders pulled back and they tightened their criteria. They would offer a higher rate for the same loan amount or just tighten their buy boxes. That we have seen recover. The other end of that is merchant, call it, the merchant demand. And that presents in the form of volume. There's just fewer merchants shopping for loans out there today and also in the form of close rates, so we call it booking rates. So if you give a merchant an offer, they're just less likely to take it. And so there's just less appetite out there in the form of close rate and volume. And that's the merchant side of it. That's the piece of it that we have yet seen to recover that should provide. And when it does, we fully expect that it will. And when it does, there should be significant upside, and we expect small business to be -- to return to being a very, very strong growth head for us. We don't disclose the revenue for small business, but that sequential decline is obviously driven by small business, and we had PL performing fairly well sequentially. Mike Grondahl: Got it. Got it. Scott Peyree: Yes. So just to put a button on that, we could do significant loan growth in small -- and the lenders would be more than happy to write those loans. The lender demand is there. Mike Grondahl: That's recovered. Got it. And then -- just looking at profit segment margins kind of by major business and as you break them out, they're softer. There's some challenges out there. Is any of that due to investments you're making? Or would you attribute it to competition and challenges in the marketplace and whatnot? How would you allocate between those 2? Scott Peyree: I would say -- good question. I appreciate it. I think there's a little bit of both. I would say there is investments. Like we are -- I'll start with business development traffic has been a big focus area of ours. And we have -- I don't have the exact stats in front of me. We have grown that quite a bit, but our focus in 2026, it's really just about growing the relationships and growing the revenue on our business development partnerships. We have not been focused much at all on the VMM or VMD perspective on the business development front. We've had a lot of success on bringing in a lot of good partners and doing a lot of business and our partners are telling us that we generally outmonetize other partners they were previously using. So we're very excited about that. And we think that will be a big part of our business over the next couple of years. We'll probably focus more on VMD and margin in '27 and beyond in that area. So that's definitely a big part of it from the margin -- overall margin profile. And then the other part of it is, yes, there's definitely like insurance, for example, there's really high competition out there right now. And it's not just our competitors, it's like the carriers themselves are advertising everywhere. So -- it is a reflection -- lower margins at some level are a reflection of everyone's out there getting in front of consumers. And it's like -- are just -- overall, we just want our cost of traffic to grow at a smaller rate than the revenue on our traffic at the end of the day. But yes, it is fair to say Google marketplaces, for example, are more expensive today than they were a year ago. Mike Grondahl: Got it. Lastly, any learnings on the AI side over the last 90 days that you want to share? Scott Peyree: Can you be a little more specific with that question? I'm just asking because there's always -- there's all sorts of routes we can go with AI. Mike Grondahl: I guess what's most meaningful for you over the last 90 days? There's a couple of -- you got a bunch of slides on it, educate us a little bit. Scott Peyree: Yes. I would say there is -- is there -- look -- kind of the 2 ways that I look at AI is you've got operational efficiency and you've got consumer-facing AI. And so from operational efficiency, the lots -- I mean, I don't know if I would say learnings, I mean, it's becoming more and more effective for us. We've learned a lot, like one of our learnings, for example, which was a big focus of the first 6 months of the year, is for AI to be really effective for internal operations, your data really has to be structured in a really good way. And your naming conventions have to be right. You need to really train the AI agents to understand all the vernacular like a business and business people use on a day-to-day operations of a specific business. And so we have spent a lot of time building and structuring our data in the right way and committing a lot of energy and effort to doing that right. And now we're starting to see really significant benefits out of making sure we structured our data in the right way for the use of AI agents. That's been one big learning there. Another big learning, and you probably have heard this on a macro level is just the cost of AI, the cost of token usage is going up and up. Like we -- and we're a type of company where we want anyone and everyone within the company that has useful use for AI to be able to use it. We've probably used 4 or 5 different AI platforms that people have access to. One of the learnings, though, I think we've learned use the right model for the right thing, right? And that's where we track use and cost and expense. And we found like there's a lot of things that maybe you're using an expensive frontier model on that you could be using a much cheaper model. Like my head of technology, we were talking like theoretically, like 90-plus percent of internal operational efficiency you could be using a much cheaper like AI model that you don't need the really expensive frontier models on. So that's a learning, and we've got good dashboards where we track it. And like if someone's spending a lot of money on tokens, I mean, it throws a flag up to like at least have the conversation of like what's the business case of this usage and -- and if it's a good case, like let's keep doing it. If it's not a good case, it's like let's either find a cheaper model or not do it. So that's one example. On the consumer side, there's been -- there's lots of learnings we've had. Like, for example, we've learned that like LLM chat tools as far as a way to like have the consumer shop. Consumers honestly don't like engaging with that. This is more a simple funnel. We've learned the AI overviews, like I talked about earlier, highly effective of like, okay, you fill out with your form, maybe you're sitting on 30 or 40 personal loan offers. But let me just give you a paragraph at the top that just gives you the high level of like, okay, this company has the lowest interest rate, this company will offer you the most money. This company will give you the lowest monthly payment because it will still give you the longest term loan. And that makes it just easier for the consumer to have more confidence of the type of companies they want to apply for. And then the final thing I'd hit on, I don't want to drag this on forever, but like I think using AI as a communication tool with the consumer is very exciting. So for example, like we developed a lead instead of sending that lead out 5 times and having 5 different brokers call a consumer bunch, like first have that -- whether it's voice or text or e-mail, have that AI agent engage and communicate with the consumer a little bit first to get a little further detail on, okay, what exactly are you fitting for? What's the right fit for you and then directing that person to the 1 or 2 companies that are the best fit. And that's a dramatically better consumer experience, and it's a really useful way to use AI from a consumer-facing perspective. Operator: I'm not showing any further questions at this time. I'd like to turn the call back over to Scott for any further remarks. Scott Peyree: All right. Just in closing, we're just -- we're very excited where we're at for the business, both just operations on our current core business and also our North Star strategy. We put that North Star together at the end of last year, did a lot of organizational shifting in the first quarter to make sure that our teams were oriented around being able to produce along the North Star. I think Q2 was really the first quarter where we really saw the velocity of long-term strategic initiatives, AI initiatives getting rolled out. We fully expect the velocity of that to keep increasing throughout the second half of the year. So we're really excited about transforming this business over the next few years and having much higher return customers, referred customers and active logged-in users. With that, thank you, and talk to you all next quarter. Operator: Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude today's presentation. We thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect, and have a wonderful day. Before you buy stock in LendingTree, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and LendingTree wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $397,405!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $1,344,091!* Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 953% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 214% for the S&P 500. Don't miss the latest top 10 list, available with Stock Advisor, and join an investing community built by individual investors for individual investors. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of August 7, 2026. This article is a transcript of this conference call produced for The Motley Fool. While we strive for our Foolish Best, there may be errors, omissions, or inaccuracies in this transcript. As with all our articles, The Motley Fool does not assume any responsibility for your use of this content, and we strongly encourage you to do your own research, including listening to the call yourself and reading the company's SEC filings. Please see our Terms and Conditions for additional details, including our Obligatory Capitalized Disclaimers of Liability. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. LendingTree (TREE) Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript was originally published by The Motley Fool

Shares of Pagaya Technologies PGY have gained almost 19% since the release of its second-quarter 2026 results on July 30. Quarterly adjusted earnings per share of $1.07 comfortably surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 71 cents. The bottom line improved 67.2% from the prior-year quarter.Results were aided by record performance across key metrics. The company recorded an improvement in total revenues, which, along with growth in network volumes, primarily supported the results. An increase in expenses hurt the results to some extent.Net income attributable to Pagaya (GAAP basis) was a record $45.3 million, up significantly from $16.7 million in the prior-year quarter. Total revenues and other income were a record $387 million, up 18.6% year over year. The increase was driven by a rise in interest income and revenues from fees. A decline in net investment loss also supported the rise. The top line surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $358.2 million.Total costs and operating expenses increased 4.2% year over year to $281.2 million. The rise was due to higher production costs.In the second quarter, network volume was a record $3.54 billion, which grew 33.5% year over year, driven by growth in the company’s auto vertical, while maintaining focus on prudent underwriting.Revenue from fees less production costs (FRLPC) was a record $146.9 million, which increased 16.4% year over year.FRLPC as a percentage of network volume contracted by 60 basis points (bps) year over year to 4.2%, driven by asset class mix, new partner and product contributions, and tighter pricing on the asset-backed securities (ABS) transactions reflecting higher cost of capital in light of market conditions. As of June 30, 2026, total assets were $1.69 billion, up 9.5% from Dec. 31, 2025.Long-term debt was $471.9 million and shareholders’ equity was $594.2 million.In the second quarter, the company raised a record $3.7 billion in ABS funding across six transactions. Management expects network volume of $3.425-$3.625 billion.Total revenues are expected between $370 million and $390 million.The adjusted EBITDA is expected to be $120-$130 million and GAAP net income is anticipated to be $42-$52 million. The company raised its 2026 outlook.Network volume of $12.5-$13.25 billion is expected, changed from the previously mentioned $11.45-$13 billion.Total revenues are projected to be $1.425-$1.525 billion, changed from the previous $1.4-$1.575 billion.Management raised its full-year net income guidance as well. It expects GAAP net income of $155-180 million, up from the previously mentioned $110-$160 million. Similarly, adjusted EBITDA is expected to be $460-$490 million, up from the previously stated $420-$460 million. Secular growth in embedded credit, rising efficiency, diversified funding sources and broader multi-product adoption will likely continue to drive Pagaya’s scalable and profitable expansion in the near term. However, uncertainty around the single-family rental strategy might limit the company’s near-term volumes. Pagaya Technologies Ltd. price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | Pagaya Technologies Ltd. Quote Currently, PGY carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. LendingTree, Inc. TREE reported second-quarter 2026 adjusted net income per share of $1.27, which missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.46. The figure compares favorably with $1.13 in the prior-year quarter.TREE’s results were affected by a decline in Consumer segment revenues and higher total costs. However, growth in revenues and adjusted EBITDA, along with strong Insurance segment performance, supported the results to some extent.Upstart Holdings, Inc. UPST is scheduled to report quarterly results on Aug. 4.The Zacks Consensus Estimate for UPST’s quarterly earnings has been unchanged at 58 cents over the past week. The figure indicates 61.1% growth from the prior-year quarter’s actual. 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 Pagaya Technologies Ltd. (PGY) : Free Stock Analysis Report LendingTree, Inc. (TREE) : Free Stock Analysis Report Upstart Holdings, Inc. (UPST) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com). Zacks Investment Research

Pagaya Technologies PGY delivered a strong first half of 2026, driven by record lending activity, robust revenue growth and expanding profitability. In the six months ended June 30, 2026, network volume surged 22% year over year to a record $6.2 billion, while total revenues jumped 14.4% to $705 million.In the second quarter alone, adjusted earnings per share came in at $1.07, rising 67.2% from the year-ago quarter. In the six months ended June 30, 2026, the company generated GAAP net income of $70 million and adjusted EBITDA of $217.7 million, reflecting improving operating leverage.PGY’s robust performance was primarily fueled by sustained growth across its AI-powered lending network. The company continued to deepen relationships with existing lending partners while onboarding new ones, resulting in higher loan originations across auto lending, point-of-sale (POS) financing and personal loans.Another key contributor has been the company’s diversified funding platform. Pagaya completed multiple oversubscribed asset-backed securities (ABS) transactions during the first half, including its first RPM resecuritization and first AAA-rated PAID resecuritization, while issuing more than $2 billion of ABS in the first quarter alone. The continued ability to access institutional capital at scale enabled the company to fund record loan volumes while demonstrating investor confidence in the quality of its underlying assets.Management’s confidence in the business outlook was reflected in its raised full-year guidance following the first quarter and continued optimism after the second quarter. Following its impressive second-quarter results, management expects full-year GAAP net income of $155-180 million and adjusted EBITDA of $460-$490 million. With a growing pipeline of lending partners, increasing network adoption, disciplined underwriting and a highly scalable operating model, Pagaya expects to maintain profitable growth through the remainder of 2026. Let us see how PGY’s two key peers, LendingTree TREE and Upstart Holdings, Inc. UPST, performed this year.LendingTree’s first-half 2026 net income per share of $1.90 compared favorably with a loss of 26 cents in the prior-year period. The company reported total revenues of $640.7 million in the first six months of this year, up 30.8% year over year, driven by continued solid performance of the Insurance segment. Total costs increased 23.5% year over year to $587.8 million.Now, LendingTree expects 2026 revenues of $1.30-$1.32 billion and variable marketing margin of $364-$374 million. TREE expects adjusted EBITDA of $145-$152 million in 2026.Upstart is scheduled to report second-quarter 2026 results on Aug. 4. In the first quarter of this year, UPST reported revenues of $308 million, up 44% year over year. Revenues from fees were $277 million, up 49% year over year, with platform/referral fees of $224.6 million and servicing/other fees of $52.4 million.In the first quarter, core personal loans held up against typical seasonality, while secured products scaled rapidly. Auto originations rose more than 300% year over year and grew sequentially on dealer network expansion and product improvements. However, Upstart’s GAAP net loss widened to $6.6 million from a net loss of $2.4 million in the year-ago period. Pagaya’s shares have gained 4% in the past six months compared with the industry’s 6% decline. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research The PGY stock is currently trading at a 12-month forward price-to-sales (P/S) of 1.01X, which is below the industry average of 2.78X. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research Over the past 30 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for PGY’s 2026 and 2027 earnings has been unchanged at $3.23 and $3.72, respectively. The consensus estimate indicates a 2.4% decline for 2026 and 15.2% growth for 2027. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research Currently, Pagaya carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. 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 Pagaya Technologies Ltd. (PGY) : Free Stock Analysis Report LendingTree, Inc. (TREE) : Free Stock Analysis Report Upstart Holdings, Inc. (UPST) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com). Zacks Investment Research

This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Release Date: July 29, 2026 For the complete transcript of the earnings call, please refer to the full earnings call transcript. Insurance revenue grew 25% year-over-year, driven by strong carrier demand. Adjusted EBITDA as a percentage of BMD improved 225 basis points year-over-year to 40%, moving toward the 45-50% long-term goal. Free cash flow remains strong at approximately $80 million annually after interest, with minimal CapEx. Net leverage improved to 1.9 from 3.0 a year ago, providing capacity for debt paydown, buybacks, or M&A. AI initiatives, including a ChatGPT app and AI overviews, are driving increased consumer engagement and operational efficiency. Small business lending (SMB) revenue faced significant headwinds due to soft merchant sentiment and lender pullback, leading to a miss in Q2. Merchant demand for small business loans remains weak, with lower close rates and smaller loan sizes, and recovery is uncertain. Home segment margins are below historical norms due to high interest rates and low home sales, with no expected near-term improvement. Insurance variable margins are pressured by high competition and rising traffic costs, expected to remain similar to Q2 levels. Consumer segment margins are suppressed because the high-margin SMB business is underperforming, impacting overall profitability. Here are the key highlights from the LendingTree Inc. (NASDAQ:TREE) Q2 2026 earnings call, focusing on the most significant Q&A exchanges. Warning! GuruFocus has detected 4 Warning Signs with TREE. Is TREE fairly valued? Test your thesis with our free DCF calculator. Q: Can you provide guardrails for the second half guidance across the various segments, and elaborate on the lower variable margins in the insurance segment? A (Jason Bengal, CFO): The midpoint of our guidance still shows us nearly doubling EBITDA over three years. The miss is driven by SMB, which underperformed our budget. For the second half, we are not assuming a full recovery in SMB merchant sentiment, only what we have line of sight to. For insurance, the backdrop remains favorable with strong carrier demand, but high competition for policies pressures media costs, which is reflected in the margin. We expect healthy growth in insurance for the second half. Q: Is the mid-20s variable margin in insurance a good run rate assumption? How confident are you in continued VMD growth into 2027, and what leading indicators do you watch for a potential cycle peak? A (Scott Perry, President and CEO): The insurance industry profitability is very stable. We watch for carriers changing pricing, which drives shopping cycles. Currently, the environment is stable with strong demand for market share. Our primary goal is VMD growth, so I would expect margins to be similar to Q2 in the second half, with VMD hopefully growing sequentially. We expect strong revenue growth in insurance for the rest of the year. Q: Regarding the consumer segment, is the softness in small business more sensitive to gas prices or interest rates? And how is the personal loan business performing? A (Scott Perry, President and CEO): The softness in small business is more about macro sentiment than interest rate sensitivity. Small business owners are on the front lines of consumer sentiment changes and are being cautious, leading to fewer loan requests and smaller loan sizes. This is temporary. On personal loans, the business is fairly stable with good sequential growth from Q1 to Q2. Q: Can you provide an update on the Google arbitration case? A (Scott Perry, President and CEO): We have joined a group initiating arbitration against Google, filing a demand motion on July 17th. We directed about $2.8 billion to Google over the impacted decade. We believe Google's overcharges account for a significant portion of our spend. We are working with an economist to size damages. Importantly, we have tax attributes (NOLs, R&D credits) that we expect to offset a substantial portion of federal income tax on any future recovery, up to around $300 million. Q: Can you size the small business segment as a percentage of revenue and adjusted EBITDA? And was the weakness driven by lender pullback or customer demand? A (Jason Bengal, CFO): We don't disclose the exact revenue for small business, but the sequential decline in the consumer segment is driven by it. The weakness was a combination of two factors: lenders pulled back and tightened criteria (which has since recovered), and merchant demand (small businesses looking for loans) remains soft. Merchant demand is the piece that has yet to recover, and when it does, it should provide significant upside. Q: Are the softer profit segment margins due to investments you are making or competition and marketplace challenges? A (Jason Bengal, CFO): It's a bit of both. We are investing heavily in business development partnerships, focusing on growing revenue and relationships rather than margin in 2026. This is a big part of the margin profile. Additionally, in insurance, there is high competition for traffic, making marketplaces like Google more expensive than a year ago, which also pressures margins. Q: What are the most meaningful learnings from AI over the last 90 days? A (Scott Perry, President and CEO): We have two key learnings. First, for internal operational efficiency, data must be structured correctly for AI agents to be effective. We spent significant time on this and are now seeing benefits. Second, we learned to use the right AI model for the right task; many internal tasks don't require expensive frontier models. On the consumer side, AI overviews that summarize offers are highly effective, and using AI as a communication tool to pre-qualify consumers before connecting them with lenders is a dramatically better experience. Q: Can you confirm that if merchant demand returns, lenders are ready and willing to write those loans? A (Jason Bengal, CFO): Yes, that is correct. Lender demand has recovered. The constraint is on the merchant side. If significant loan demand from small businesses returns, the lenders are more than happy to write those loans. For the complete transcript of the earnings call, please refer to the full earnings call transcript.

Interested in LendingTree, Inc.? Here are five stocks we like better. Insurance led LendingTree’s Q2 growth: Insurance revenue rose 42% year over year and segment profit increased 25%, while companywide adjusted EBITDA grew 11%. Margin efficiency improved, with adjusted EBITDA reaching 40% of variable marketing margin. Small-business lending weakened and tempered the outlook: Softer borrower sentiment, fewer loan applications and smaller loan amounts pressured the consumer segment. Management views the slowdown as temporary and expects improvement, but current guidance does not assume a full recovery to first-quarter levels. Financial flexibility and AI investments remain priorities: LendingTree generated about $80 million in annual free cash flow, reduced net leverage to 1.9 times and is considering debt repayment, share buybacks and acquisitions. AI tools and operational efficiencies helped contain expenses, while new digital products increased sessions and form starts. MarketBeat’s Top 5 Rated Small-Cap Stocks LendingTree (NASDAQ:TREE) reported second-quarter 2026 growth led by its insurance business, while management said softer demand in small-business lending weighed on the consumer segment and prompted a more cautious outlook for the remainder of the year. President and CEO Scott Peyree said insurance revenue increased 25% year over year, while adjusted EBITDA rose 11%. Adjusted EBITDA as a percentage of variable marketing margin, or VMM, increased 225 basis points from a year earlier to 40%, moving toward the company’s long-term target range of 45% to 50%. → This Tiny AI Supplier Could Be More Important Than the Chipmakers LendingTree vs. LendingClub: Which Stock is Better? Peyree said the company has roughly doubled revenue and adjusted EBITDA from 2023 through 2026, supported by a diverse set of product lines. Operating expenses were flat year over year, which he attributed to AI-driven and broader operational efficiencies. LendingTree generated approximately $80 million in annual free cash flow after interest, according to Peyree, and reduced net leverage to 1.9 times from 3.0 times a year earlier. Insurance was the company’s strongest segment during the quarter. Peyree said insurance revenue rose 42% year over year and segment profit increased 25%, citing strong demand from insurance carriers. → Refiner Stocks Are Near Record Highs—Can Iran-Driven Margins Keep Them There? Management said the industry environment remains favorable as carriers compete for policies amid what Peyree described as stable and profitable conditions across the insurance sector. However, competition for consumer traffic has also pressured costs and margins. “Our first goal on insurance growth is overall VMM growth,” Peyree said. He added that the company expects insurance margins in the second half to be broadly similar to the second quarter, while VMM is expected to grow sequentially. → Innovative ETF Strategies That Are Paying Off This Summer Chief Financial Officer Jason Bengel said carrier demand supports the company’s insurance partner revenue, but the same competitive backdrop puts pressure on immediate traffic-acquisition costs. The company expects healthy insurance growth in the second half, he said. LendingTree’s consumer segment was affected by a slowdown in small-business lending, which management said was driven by both a pullback among lenders and softer sentiment among small-business borrowers, referred to by the company as merchants. Peyree said the company had previously flagged potential headwinds tied to Middle East tensions and energy-price increases. Demand was weaker than management had forecast, leading to a second-quarter shortfall. While lender appetite has largely returned to levels seen early in the first quarter, merchant sentiment remains soft, he said. Bengel said the weakness showed up in fewer merchants seeking loans, lower loan amounts, and lower rates of borrowers accepting loan offers. Lenders had tightened criteria or offered higher rates for similar loan amounts, but that condition has improved, according to management. “The lender demand is there,” Peyree said, adding that lenders would be willing to write more small-business loans if loan demand improved. Management said it does not disclose standalone small-business lending revenue. However, Bengel said the sequential decline in the consumer business was driven by small business, while personal loans performed well sequentially from the first to second quarter. Management characterized the small-business slowdown as temporary and macroeconomic rather than competitive or structural. Peyree cited improving closing rates, larger loan requests and favorable underwriting shifts as encouraging signs. He said July is expected to be the company’s best small-business sales month since the first quarter, giving management confidence that the second quarter marked a trough. Still, Bengel said the company’s outlook only assumes the lender-demand recovery already visible and does not assume a full return in merchant sentiment. Small-business lending is not expected to return to first-quarter levels within the company’s current guidance assumptions. In the home segment, revenue increased 9% year over year and segment profit rose 13% sequentially. Peyree said the business continues to operate in a near-trough environment as high interest rates constrain the mortgage market. Bengel said home-lending margins remain below historical norms because home sales are running at roughly 4 million units, limiting the available pool of borrowers and intensifying competition. LendingTree is not assuming meaningful upside in home margins in its guidance, he said, though management sees long-term potential if the housing market recovers. Peyree also said the company is investing in business-development partnerships and traffic generation. While those efforts have brought in partners and revenue, the company has not been primarily focused on VMM or margin from those relationships during 2026. He said management expects to place more emphasis on margin in that area beginning in 2027. LendingTree highlighted several product and AI initiatives launched during the quarter, including a ChatGPT application called the Home Loan Rate Confidence App, six new consumer offerings including pet insurance and commercial insurance, and homepage and navigation changes that Peyree said lifted sessions by 11% and form starts by 18%. The company is also deploying voice AI, AI-generated offer overviews and internal AI tools for marketing, sales and finance teams. Peyree said internal AI agents have helped reduce work that previously took weeks into real-time processes, contributing to operating expenses rising less than 1% while revenue grew 25% year over year. Management said it is also learning to match AI tasks with lower-cost models where appropriate and has invested in structuring internal data to improve AI effectiveness. On the consumer side, Peyree said LendingTree has found that AI summaries of available offers can help consumers more easily identify options based on interest rate, loan amount and payment terms. With leverage lower and free cash flow strong, Peyree said the company has flexibility to continue debt repayment while also considering share repurchases and accretive acquisitions. He said LendingTree’s long-term strategy remains focused on becoming a leading destination for financial-product shopping by increasing return customers, referrals and logged-in users. Separately, Bengel said LendingTree joined a group of advertisers pursuing arbitration claims against Google related to federal court rulings involving online search and search advertising. The company filed the group’s demand motion on July 17 and directed approximately $2.8 billion to Google during the affected period of roughly a decade, according to Bengel. LendingTree, Inc operates an online marketplace that connects consumers with a network of lenders and financial service providers. Through its platform, borrowers can compare loan offers for mortgages, home equity loans, personal loans, student loans, auto loans and small business financing. The company also offers tools for comparing credit cards and deposit accounts, allowing users to research rates and terms from a range of providers in one place. Founded in 1996 by Doug Lebda, LendingTree pioneered the comparison-shopping model for consumer credit products. 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 "LendingTree Q2 Earnings Call Highlights" was originally published by MarketBeat. View MarketBeat's top stocks for July 2026.

LendingTree, Inc. TREE used its second-quarter earnings call to highlight strong insurance growth, expanding artificial intelligence initiatives and efforts to build a more durable consumer marketplace. Management also addressed weaker-than-expected small business lending demand that pressured results. The company maintained that the SMB softness was driven by temporary macro-related sentiment issues rather than structural problems, while outlining recovery expectations and updated financial targets for 2026. Chief executive officer Scott Peyree said LendingTree delivered another quarter of strong revenue growth, supported primarily by the Insurance segment. Revenues increased 25% year over year to $313.42 million, which came in below the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $315.07 million. The company reported adjusted earnings per share of $1.27, below the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.46. million. Adjusted EBITDA rose 11% year over year to $35.2 million. LendingTree, Inc. price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | LendingTree, Inc. Quote Peyree highlighted insurance as the strongest contributor, with segment revenues rising 42% year over year to $209.3 million and segment profit increasing 25% to $50 million. He said carrier demand remains strong and supports continued growth opportunities. LendingTree identified small business lending weakness as the primary factor behind the quarterly shortfall. Peyree said SMB demand weakened as business owners became more cautious amid broader economic uncertainty. The Consumer segment posted revenues of $60.3 million, down 4% year over year, while segment profit declined 14%. Management attributed the decline primarily to lower merchant demand and earlier lender pullbacks in SMB lending. CFO Jason Bengel said lenders have largely returned to the previous activity levels, but merchant sentiment remains the main area requiring improvement. He noted that SMB had previously been a major growth engine, averaging roughly 40% year-over-year profit growth since early 2024. Management said recent trends indicate stabilization in the small business segment. Peyree noted improving closing rates, larger loan requests and favorable underwriting shifts as early signs of recovery. The company expects SMB performance to improve through the second half of 2026 and eventually return above the first-quarter record levels. Bengel said current guidance assumes only the recovery already visible from lender demand, rather than a full return of merchant demand. An Oppenheimer analyst asked about SMB sensitivity to economic conditions and whether weakness was related more to interest rates or business confidence. Peyree said the issue was primarily sentiment-driven, with smaller businesses delaying hiring and capital spending decisions. LendingTree continued advancing its AI initiatives during the quarter, including consumer-facing tools and internal productivity applications. Peyree said the company launched a ChatGPT app featuring a Home Loan Rate Confidence tool and introduced six new consumer products. The company’s homepage and navigation redesign increased sessions by 11% and form starts by 18%, according to management. AI-generated product overviews and communication tools are also being deployed to improve consumer engagement. Peyree said internal AI agents are helping teams convert weeks of work into real-time insights, contributing to operating efficiency. He noted that operating expenses increased less than 1% while revenue grew 25% year over year. Management reiterated its strategy of becoming the leading destination for consumers shopping for financial products. The company is focusing on increasing return customers, referred customers and logged-in users to create a stronger marketplace. The Home segment generated revenues of $43.9 million, up 9% year over year, although segment profit declined 14% due to continued pressure from the challenging mortgage environment. Management said long-term upside remains tied to market recovery. LendingTree also highlighted balance sheet improvements. Peyree said annual free cash flow after interest is approximately $80 million and net leverage improved to 1.9x from 3.0x a year ago. LendingTree provided full-year 2026 guidance for revenues of $1.3 billion to $1.32 billion, variable marketing margin of $364 million to $374 million and adjusted EBITDA of $145 million to $152 million. For the third quarter of 2026, the company expects revenues of $325 million to $335 million, variable marketing margin of $88 million to $93 million and adjusted EBITDA of $34 million to $36 million. Management said insurance growth should remain healthy, while Consumer improvement depends on the recovery of SMB borrower demand. The company continues to balance growth investments with margin discipline. TREE carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). The Zacks Rank is based on earnings estimate revisions and is designed to help identify stocks with stronger or weaker near-term earnings momentum. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. The stock has a Value Score of A, Growth Score of B, Momentum Score of B and VGM Score of A. Zacks Style Scores range from A to F, with higher scores indicating stronger characteristics for the related investment style. A combination of favorable Style Scores and the Zacks Rank can provide additional context when evaluating stocks. However, the Zacks Rank can change as earnings estimates are revised after quarterly results and other company developments. 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 LendingTree, Inc. (TREE) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com). Zacks Investment Research

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. Revenue growth of 25% year-over-year was primarily driven by a 42% surge in the Insurance segment, fueled by strong carrier demand and a stable profitability environment. The Consumer segment faced significant headwinds in SMB lending due to a sharp decline in merchant sentiment and lender pullbacks triggered by macro factors like energy price spikes and geopolitical tensions. Management attributes the SMB miss to temporary macro-driven caution rather than structural or competitive issues, noting that lenders have already largely returned to early Q1 activity levels. Operational efficiency initiatives, including AI-driven automation, kept OpEx growth below 1% despite the 25% revenue increase, expanding adjusted EBITDA margins toward a long-term goal of 45% to 50% of VMD. The company is pivoting its capital allocation strategy; with net leverage reduced to 1.9x, management is now exploring buybacks and accretive M&A alongside continued debt paydown. Strategic focus is shifting toward increasing return customers and logged-in user growth to create a more durable, less traffic-dependent business model over the next several years. Second-half guidance assumes stabilization in the SMB sector with sequential improvement, though it does not contemplate a full return to Q1 record levels until merchant sentiment recovers. The Insurance segment is expected to maintain healthy growth through the remainder of 2026, with margins likely remaining at Q2 levels as the company prioritizes total variable margin dollar (VMD) growth. Management anticipates the Home segment will remain in a trough due to high interest rates and low housing inventory, with no significant upside baked into current guidance. The company expects to generate approximately $80 million in annual free cash flow after interest, providing the liquidity needed for flexible capital deployment. Future growth is increasingly tied to 'North Star' initiatives, including AI-driven communication tools and personalized offer overviews designed to improve consumer conversion and engagement. The company has initiated arbitration against Google for alleged monopolistic overcharges, citing $2.8 billion in historical spend as the basis for potential damages. Management noted that approximately $300 million in tax attributes, including NOLs and R&D credits, could offset federal income tax liabilities on any potential recovery from the Google arbitration. Rising costs for AI 'frontier models' have prompted a strategic shift toward using cheaper, specialized models for internal operational tasks to maintain cost efficiency. Increased competition in the insurance marketplace from carriers advertising directly to consumers is exerting pressure on immediate acquisition costs and variable margins. One stock. Nvidia-level potential. 30M+ investors trust Moby to find it first. Get the pick. Tap here. Management clarified that while lender appetite has recovered to Q1 levels, merchant demand remains soft as small business owners delay capital expenditures due to macro uncertainty. July was cited as the best sales month since Q1, which management interprets as a signal that Q2 represented the trough for the SMB segment. Current variable margins in the mid-20s are expected to persist as the company prioritizes capturing market share and total VMD over margin expansion during this high-growth phase. Key indicators for the next cycle include carriers 'giving back rate' (reducing pricing), which would likely trigger a new surge in consumer shopping behavior. LendingTree joined a group arbitration filing on July 17, 2026, seeking damages for search advertising overcharges dating back a decade. The company is working with expert economists to quantify damages, noting that any award would be largely shielded from federal taxes by existing tax carryforwards. Management found that LLM chat tools were less effective for consumer shopping than 'AI overviews' that synthesize complex loan offers into digestible summaries. Internal efficiency is being driven by 'AI agents' that require highly structured data; the company is actively monitoring token costs to ensure the most cost-effective models are used for specific tasks.

LendingTree, Inc. TREE reported second-quarter 2026 adjusted net income per share of $1.27, which missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.46. The figure compares favorably with $1.13 reported in the prior-year quarter. Shares of the company plunged nearly 3.8% in yesterday’s trading session following the release of lower-than-expected results and a lowered full-year 2026 outlook. Results were affected by a decline in Consumer segment revenues and higher total costs. However, growth in revenues and adjusted EBITDA, along with strong Insurance segment performance, supported the results to some extent. Results exclude certain non-recurring items. After considering these, TREE reported a GAAP net income of $9.6 million, or 68 cents per share, compared with $8.9 million, or 65 cents per share, in the year-ago quarter. Total revenues in the second quarter increased 25.3% year over year to $313.4 million. The reported figure missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $315.07 million by 0.5%. Total cost of revenues was $11.3 million, up 12.4% from the prior-year quarter. Total costs and expenses were $291.6 million, up 27.2% from the previous-year quarter. Adjusted EBITDA totaled $35.2 million, up 10.6% from the year-ago quarter. The variable marketing margin was $87.3 million, up 4.4%. As of June 30, 2026, cash and cash equivalents were $110.8 million compared with $85.5 million as of March 31, 2026. Long-term debt was $386.4 million compared with $387 million as of March 31, 2026. Home segment revenues increased 9% year over year to $43.9 million. Segment profit declined 14% year over year to $11.3 million. Consumer segment revenues decreased 4% year over year to $60.3 million. Segment profit fell 14% year over year to $27.6 million. Insurance segment revenues grew 42% year over year to $209.3 million. Segment profit increased 25% year over year to $50 million. Third-Quarter 2026 Total revenues are projected to be between $325 million and $335 million. Adjusted EBITDA is anticipated to be between $34 million and $36 million. The variable marketing margin is anticipated to be between $88 million and $93 million. 2026 Total revenues are expected to be between $1.30 billion and $1.32 billion compared with the prior range of $1.30 billion to $1.35 billion. Adjusted EBITDA is projected to be in the range of $145-$152 million compared with the previous range of $152-$162 million. The variable marketing margin is expected to be in the range of $364-$374 million compared with $378-$395 million previously. TREE’s Consumer segment weakness and higher total costs remain concerns. Nevertheless, its diversified online lending platform, strong Insurance segment performance and efforts to expand non-mortgage product offerings are expected to support revenue growth in the future. LendingTree, Inc. price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | LendingTree, Inc. Quote Currently, LendingTree carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. Hancock Whitney Corp.’s HWC second-quarter 2026 earnings per share of $1.55 matched the Zacks Consensus Estimate. The bottom line rose 17.4% from the prior-year quarter. HWC’s results were supported by higher net interest income and non-interest income, along with a decline in provisions. Also, a sequential increase in loans and deposit balances was positive. However, higher expenses were the undermining factor. Texas Capital Bancshares, Inc. TCBI reported second-quarter 2026 adjusted earnings per share of $1.88, which surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.85. The figure also compared favorably with $1.63 in the year-ago quarter. TCBI’s results benefited from higher net interest income and non-interest income, along with solid loan and deposit balances. However, results were impacted by higher expenses and credit costs. 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 LendingTree, Inc. (TREE) : Free Stock Analysis Report Texas Capital Bancshares, Inc. (TCBI) : Free Stock Analysis Report Hancock Whitney Corporation (HWC) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com). Zacks Investment Research

Revenue Grew 25% YoY Driven By Strong Insurance Segment Performance Consolidated revenue of $313.4 million GAAP net income of $9.6 million or $0.68 per diluted share Variable marketing margin of $87.3 million Adjusted EBITDA of $35.2 million CHARLOTTE, N.C., July 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- LendingTree, Inc. (NASDAQ: TREE), operator of LendingTree.com, the nation's leading online financial services marketplace, today announced results for the quarter ended June 30, 2026. The company has posted a letter to shareholders on the company's website at investors.lendingtree.com. "We posted our eighth straight quarter of double-digit year-over-year adjusted EBITDA growth in Q2, powered by another solid quarter from our Insurance segment," said Scott Peyree, CEO. "We also accomplished a great deal on the product and AI front during the period. We launched several new consumer-facing AI capabilities such as our ChatGPT app, expanded our marketplace into six new verticals, and we are continuing to see strong results from our homepage redesign. We remain laser focused as a team on executing our strategy to become the Number One Destination to Shop For Financial Products." Jason Bengel, CFO, commented, "Solid Insurance segment results were offset by weaker than expected Consumer performance in Q2. Last quarter we called out an expected sequential decline in Consumer, driven by suppressed borrower demand in our small business segment. This demand trend continued to deteriorate throughout the quarter. However, appetite from small business owners for new loans on our network has since stabilized, and we expect sequential revenue growth through the remainder of the year. SMB has been a great success story for our company, having grown segment revenue nearly 40% year-over-year on average dating back to the beginning of 2024. Lenders remain very active on our network, and we expect an increase in borrower demand will allow us to climb back to, and eventually surpass, the record SMB performance in Q1 of this year based on strong structural tailwinds in the segment." Second Quarter 2026 Business Results Insurance segment revenue of $209.3 million increased 42% over second quarter 2025 and translated into segment profit of $50.0 million, up 25% over the same period. Consumer segment revenue of $60.3 million decreased 4% from the prior year period, while segment profit declined 14%. Home segment revenue of $43.9 million increased 9% over second quarter 2025 and produced segment profit of $11.3 million, a decline of 14% over the same period. Financial Outlook* Today we update our full-year 2026 outlook and provide our outlook for Q3: Full-year 2026:* Revenue of $1.30 to $1.32 billion Variable Marketing Margin of $364 - $374 million Adjusted EBITDA of $145 - $152 million Third-quarter 2026:* Revenue: $325 - $335 million Variable Marketing Margin: $88 - $93 million Adjusted EBITDA: $34 - $36 million *LendingTree is not able to provide a reconciliation of projected variable marketing margin or adjusted EBITDA to the most directly comparable expected GAAP results due to the unknown effect, timing and potential significance of the effects of legal matters and tax considerations. Expenses associated with legal matters and tax considerations have in the past, and may in the future, significantly affect GAAP results in a particular period. Quarterly Conference Call A conference call to discuss LendingTree's second quarter 2026 financial results will be webcast live today, July 29, 2026 at 4:30 PM Eastern Time (ET). The live webcast is open to the public and will be available on LendingTree's investor relations website at investors.lendingtree.com. Following completion of the call, a recorded replay of the webcast will be available on the website. LENDINGTREE'S RECONCILIATION OF NON-GAAP MEASURES TO GAAP Variable Marketing Expense Below is a reconciliation of selling and marketing expense, the most directly comparable GAAP measure, to variable marketing expense. See "LendingTree's Principles of Financial Reporting" for further discussion of the Company's use of this non-GAAP measure. LENDINGTREE'S RECONCILIATION OF NON-GAAP MEASURES TO GAAP Variable Marketing Margin Below is a reconciliation of net income, the most directly comparable GAAP measure, to variable marketing margin and net income % of revenue to variable marketing margin % of revenue. See "LendingTree's Principles of Financial Reporting" for further discussion of the Company's use of these non-GAAP measures. LENDINGTREE'S RECONCILIATION OF NON-GAAP MEASURES TO GAAP Adjusted EBITDA Below is a reconciliation of net income, the most directly comparable GAAP measure, to adjusted EBITDA and net income % of revenue to adjusted EBITDA % of revenue. See "LendingTree's Principles of Financial Reporting" for further discussion of the Company's use of these non-GAAP measures. LENDINGTREE'S PRINCIPLES OF FINANCIAL REPORTING LendingTree reports the following non-GAAP measures as supplemental to GAAP: Variable marketing expense Variable marketing margin Variable marketing margin % of revenue Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization, as adjusted for certain items discussed below ("Adjusted EBITDA") Adjusted EBITDA % of revenue Adjusted EBITDA % of variable marketing margin Variable marketing expense, variable marketing margin and variable marketing margin % of revenue are related measures of the effectiveness of the Company's marketing efforts. Variable marketing expense represents the portion of selling and marketing expense attributable to variable costs paid for advertising, direct marketing, and related expenses, and excludes overhead, fixed costs, and personnel-related expenses. Variable marketing margin is a measure of the efficiency of the Company's operating model, measuring revenue after subtracting variable marketing expense. The Company's operating model is highly sensitive to the amount and efficiency of variable marketing expenditures, and the Company's proprietary systems are able to make rapidly changing decisions concerning the deployment of variable marketing expenditures (primarily but not exclusively online and mobile advertising placement) based on proprietary and sophisticated analytics. Adjusted EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA % of revenue, and adjusted EBITDA % of variable marketing margin are primary metrics by which LendingTree evaluates the operating performance of its businesses, on which its marketing expenditures and internal budgets are based and, in the case of adjusted EBITDA, by which management and many employees are compensated in most years. These non-GAAP measures should be considered in addition to results prepared in accordance with GAAP, but should not be considered a substitute for or superior to GAAP results. LendingTree provides and encourages investors to examine the reconciling adjustments between the GAAP and non-GAAP measures set forth above. Definition of LendingTree's Non-GAAP Measures Variable marketing margin is defined as revenue less variable marketing expense. Variable marketing expense is defined as the expense attributable to variable costs paid for advertising, direct marketing and related expenses, and excluding overhead, fixed costs and personnel-related expenses. The majority of these variable advertising costs are expressly intended to drive traffic to our websites and these variable advertising costs are included in selling and marketing expense on the Company's consolidated statements of operations and consolidated income. EBITDA is defined as net income excluding interest, income taxes, amortization of intangibles and depreciation. Adjusted EBITDA is defined as EBITDA excluding (1) non-cash compensation expense, (2) non-cash impairment charges, (3) gain/loss on disposal of assets, (4) gain/loss on investments, (5) restructuring and severance expenses, (6) litigation settlements and contingencies, (7) acquisitions and dispositions income or expense (including with respect to changes in fair value of contingent consideration), (8) contributions to the LendingTree Foundation (9) dividend income, and (10) one-time items. LendingTree endeavors to compensate for the limitations of these non-GAAP measures by also providing the comparable GAAP measures with equal or greater prominence and descriptions of the reconciling items, including quantifying such items, to derive the non-GAAP measures. These non-GAAP measures may not be comparable to similarly titled measures used by other companies. One-Time Items Adjusted EBITDA and adjusted net income are adjusted for one-time items, if applicable. Items are considered one-time in nature if they are non-recurring, infrequent or unusual, and have not occurred in the past two years or are not expected to recur in the next two years, in accordance with SEC rules. For the periods presented in this report, there are no adjustments for one-time items. Non-Cash Expenses That Are Excluded From LendingTree's Adjusted EBITDA Non-cash compensation expense consists principally of expense associated with the grants of restricted stock, restricted stock units and stock options. These expenses are not paid in cash and LendingTree includes the related shares in its calculations of fully diluted shares outstanding. Upon settlement of restricted stock units, exercise of certain stock options or vesting of restricted stock awards, the awards may be settled on a net basis, with LendingTree remitting the required tax withholding amounts from its current funds. Cash expenditures for employer payroll taxes on non-cash compensation are included within adjusted EBITDA. Amortization of intangibles are non-cash expenses relating primarily to acquisitions. At the time of an acquisition, the intangible assets of the acquired company, such as purchase agreements, technology and customer relationships, are valued and amortized over their estimated lives. Safe Harbor Statement Under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 The matters contained in the discussion above may be considered to be "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Those statements include statements regarding the intent, belief or current expectations or anticipations of LendingTree and members of our management team. Factors currently known to management that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include the following: adverse conditions in the primary and secondary mortgage markets and in the economy, particularly interest rates and inflation; default rates on loans, particularly unsecured loans; demand by investors for unsecured personal loans; the effect of such demand on interest rates for personal loans and consumer demand for personal loans; seasonality of results; potential liabilities to secondary market purchasers; changes in the Company's relationships with network partners, including dependence on certain key network partners; breaches of network security or the misappropriation or misuse of personal consumer information; failure to provide competitive service; our ability to compete effectively and adapt to competitive pressures in each of our businesses, including from disintermediation as well as technological change, digital disruption and other types of innovation such as artificial intelligence; failure to maintain brand recognition; ability to attract and retain consumers in a cost-effective manner; the effects of potential acquisitions of other businesses, including the ability to integrate them successfully with LendingTree's existing operations; accounting rules related to excess tax benefits or expenses on stock-based compensation that could materially affect earnings in future periods; ability to develop new products and services and enhance existing ones; effects of changing laws, rules or regulations on our business model; allegations of failure to comply with existing or changing laws, rules or regulations, or to obtain and maintain required licenses; failure of network partners or other affiliated parties to comply with regulatory requirements; failure to maintain the integrity of systems and infrastructure; liabilities as a result of privacy regulations; failure to adequately protect intellectual property rights or allegations of infringement of intellectual property rights; and changes in management. These and additional factors to be considered are set forth under "Risk Factors" in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the period ended December 31, 2025, in our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the period ended March 31, 2026, and in our other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. LendingTree undertakes no obligation to update or revise forward-looking statements to reflect changed assumptions, the occurrence of unanticipated events or changes to future operating results or expectations. About LendingTree, Inc. LendingTree, Inc. is the parent of LendingTree, LLC and several companies owned by LendingTree, LLC (collectively, "LendingTree" or the "Company"). LendingTree is one of the nation's largest, most experienced online financial platforms, created to give consumers the power to win financially. LendingTree provides customers with access to the best offers on loans, credit cards, insurance and more through its network of approximately 770 financial partners. Since its founding, LendingTree has helped millions of customers obtain financing, save money, and improve their financial and credit health in their personal journeys. With a portfolio of innovative products and tools and personalized financial recommendations, LendingTree helps customers achieve everyday financial wins. LendingTree, Inc. is headquartered in Charlotte, NC. For more information, please visit www.lendingtree.com. Investor Relations Contact:[email protected] Media Contact:[email protected] View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/lendingtree-reports-second-quarter-2026-results-302838118.html

For the quarter ended June 2026, Tree.com (TREE) reported revenue of $313.42 million, up 25.3% over the same period last year. EPS came in at $1.27, compared to $1.13 in the year-ago quarter. The reported revenue compares to the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $315.07 million, representing a surprise of -0.52%. The company delivered an EPS surprise of -13.01%, with the consensus EPS estimate being $1.46. While investors scrutinize revenue and earnings changes year-over-year and how they compare with Wall Street expectations to determine their next move, some key metrics always offer a more accurate picture of a company's financial health. Since these metrics play a crucial role in driving the top- and bottom-line numbers, comparing them with the year-ago numbers and what analysts estimated about them helps investors better project a stock's price performance. Here is how Tree.com performed in the just reported quarter in terms of the metrics most widely monitored and projected by Wall Street analysts: Revenue- Consumer: $60.3 million compared to the $62.73 million average estimate based on two analysts. The reported number represents a change of -3.5% year over year. Revenue- Home: $43.9 million versus $41.82 million estimated by two analysts on average. Compared to the year-ago quarter, this number represents a +8.7% change. Revenue- Insurance: $209.3 million compared to the $210.47 million average estimate based on two analysts. The reported number represents a change of +42.2% year over year. Segment profit- Home: $11.3 million versus $11.51 million estimated by two analysts on average. Segment profit- Insurance: $50 million compared to the $55.03 million average estimate based on two analysts. Segment profit- Consumer: $27.6 million versus $31.67 million estimated by two analysts on average. View all Key Company Metrics for Tree.com here>>> Shares of Tree.com have returned -7.4% over the past month versus the Zacks S&P 500 composite's +1.9% change. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold), indicating that it could perform in line with the broader market in the near term. 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 LendingTree, Inc. (TREE) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com). Zacks Investment Research