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CLEAR Secure’s second quarter was marked by strong revenue growth and notable operating margin improvement, which contributed to a positive market reaction. Management attributed these results to increased adoption of its secure identity platform, continued expansion of its travel network, and efficiency gains from technology investments. CEO Caryn Seidman-Becker highlighted, “We ended this quarter with almost 44 million total CLEAR members, driving bookings of $296 million and free cash flow of $189 million.” The company’s focus on enhancing the traveler experience through its mobile app and eGates also played a significant role in driving member retention and new signups. Is now the time to buy YOU? Find out in our full research report (it’s free). Revenue: $277.8 million vs analyst estimates of $269.5 million (26.6% year-on-year growth, 3.1% beat) Adjusted EPS: $0.57 vs analyst estimates of $0.47 (22% beat) Adjusted EBITDA: $101.1 million vs analyst estimates of $84.91 million (36.4% margin, 19.1% beat) Revenue Guidance for Q3 CY2026 is $285.5 million at the midpoint, above analyst estimates of $274.7 million Operating Margin: 29.9%, up from 19.4% in the same quarter last year Billings: $295.9 million at quarter end Market Capitalization: $4.97 billion While we enjoy listening to the management’s commentary, our favorite part of earnings calls is the analyst questions. Those are unscripted and can often highlight topics that management teams would rather avoid or topics where the answer is complicated. Here is what has caught our attention. Eric Sheridan (Goldman Sachs) asked about the evolution of the Home to Gate strategy and Concierge’s long-term potential. CEO Caryn Seidman-Becker explained that network completeness and increased partner marketing would be prerequisites for scaling awareness and monetization. Joshua Reilly (Needham & Co.) inquired about maintaining CLEAR1’s first-mover advantage and developing corporate use cases. Seidman-Becker pointed to continuous innovation and growing embedded network effects as key differentiators. Joshua Reilly (Needham & Co.) also questioned the impact of the Amex partnership accrual on free cash flow. CFO Jennifer Hsu clarified the payout would occur in the third quarter, with no other implications for this year’s cash flow. Dana Telsey (Telsey Advisory Group) asked about future margin expansion and growth beyond travel. Hsu and Seidman-Becker pointed to operational leverage, new pricing strategies, and opportunities in government and healthcare. Wyatt Swanson (D.A. Davidson) followed up on bookings guidance, CLEAR+ member growth, and international expansion. Management reiterated near-term focus on North American markets, with international opportunities under active consideration but without a set timeline. In coming quarters, the StockStory team will be monitoring (1) the expansion of CLEAR’s travel network and adoption of new services like Concierge, (2) progress in signing and scaling enterprise and government partnerships through CLEAR1, and (3) the impact of recent pricing changes on member retention and ARPU. Successful execution in these areas, along with continued development of proprietary identity products, will be key to sustaining growth. CLEAR Secure currently trades at $49.00, down from $55.73 just before the earnings. Is the company at an inflection point that warrants a buy or sell? Find out in our full research report (it’s free for active Edge members). ONE MORE THING: Top 5 Growth Stocks. The biggest stock winners almost always had one thing in common before they ran. Revenue growing like crazy. Meta. CrowdStrike. Broadcom. Our AI flagged all three. They returned 315%, 314%, and 455%, respectively. Find out which 5 stocks it’s flagging this month — FREE. Get Our Top 5 Growth Stocks for Free HERE. Stocks that have made our list include now familiar names such as Nvidia (+1,460% between June 2020 and June 2025) as well as under-the-radar businesses like the once-micro-cap company Tecnoglass (+1,552% between June 2020 and June 2025). Find your next big winner with StockStory today.

Image source: The Motley Fool. Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2026 at 8:00 a.m. ET Founder, Chair, and Chief Executive Officer - Caryn Seidman Becker President - Michael Barkin Chief Financial Officer - Jen Hsu Operator: Good morning, and welcome to CLEAR's fiscal second quarter 2026 conference call. We have with us today Caryn Seidman Becker, Founder, Chair, and Chief Executive Officer, Michael Barkin, President, and Jen Hsu, Chief Financial Officer. As a reminder, before we begin, today's discussion contains forward-looking statements about the company's future business and financial performance. These are based on management's current expectations and are subject to risks and uncertainties. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from these statements are included in the documents the company has filed and furnished with the SEC, including today's press release. The company disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements that may be discussed during the call. During this call, unless otherwise stated, all comparisons will be against the comparable period of fiscal year 2025. Additionally, the company will discuss both GAAP and non-GAAP financial measures. A reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP financial measures is provided in today's press release and the most recently filed Form 10-Q. These items can be found in the investor relations section of CLEAR's website. With that, I will turn the call over to Caryn. Caryn Seidman Becker: We founded CLEAR with a profound conviction that proving you are you securely, privately, and instantly would one day sit at the center of how Americans live, work, and travel. For a long time, it was a vision. Now it is our reality. CLEAR is the trusted secure identity company, and after 16 years of building our identity platform, CLEAR Travel and CLEAR1, we have never been stronger or better positioned. It feels like day one around CLEAR because it is. Today, identity is critical infrastructure. It is security, the foundation of the connected, frictionless digital world being built around us. We ended this quarter with almost 44 million total CLEAR members, driving bookings of $296 million and free cash flow of $189 million. We delivered 33% bookings growth, and free cash flow is up 60% year-over-year. This quarter's results reflect years of disciplined execution, building the technology, expanding the networks, and earning the trust of tens of millions of members and partners. We are growing rapidly, generating significant cash, and investing aggressively in the products and experiences that will define the next era of secure identity and frictionless experiences. This is the five-year anniversary of our IPO, and at that time, we targeted 35% adjusted EBITDA margins. For the first time this quarter, we surpassed that goal with a 36.4% adjusted EBITDA margin, reflecting the investments we made for the future and the power of our growth and our business model. I had high expectations five years ago for what it meant to be the trusted secure identity company, from Homeland Security to cybersecurity. The opportunities far surpass what I imagined, from transforming the travel experience to fighting fraud and agentic identity. Today, we'll talk about these opportunities and how we're executing in both CLEAR Travel and CLEAR1. In travel, it's about home to gate. The travel economy continues to boom, and travelers expect the same seamless, personalized experiences at the airport that they have everywhere else in their lives, and CLEAR delivers it. We have always said we're obsessed with the member experience, and this quarter that helped deliver our highest customer experience scores due to our robust product suite enabling the much sought-after frictionless and predictable travel day. The mobile app unifies the travel journey. With calendar sync, personalized travel guidance, airport wayfinding, and live updates, travelers know exactly when to leave and where to go, regardless of the airport or terminal. Our mobile business is growing rapidly and is averaging 1 million monthly users. Users are engaging with the app, whether it be home to gate, CLEAR Concierge, or the identity vault. We see significant opportunities to simplify the rest of the journey, from your bag to concessions. In fact, we've launched our first concessions partnership at Newark, and we're building on that momentum with a new pilot with Starbucks beginning at LaGuardia. Members can order coffee in advance and have it waiting at exactly the right spot as they head to their gate. eGates now cover more than 70% of our network and remain magical for CLEAR members. There used to be a saying in travel, if you've seen one airport, you've seen one airport, let alone one terminal. With CLEAR, if you've experienced one eGate, you know what to expect at every eGate: a seamless verification in under five seconds. This is the modern travel experience, driving retention, gross adds, and conversion, and winning back customers who have not yet experienced the CLEAR we have built today. The identity layer matters more today than ever, as adversaries now manufacture identity at scale, with AI making deep fakes and synthetic identities cheap and convincing. Yesterday's defenses are no match for today's threats. Getting identity right is the foundation of a secure enterprise, and CLEAR1 is built for this moment. CLEAR is raising the bar, and this quarter, we didn't just elevate industry standards, we levitated them to deliver total identity integrity to our partners and our members. We launched CLEAR's identity framework with three proprietary products built for today's world: Vertex, Apex, and Helix. Vertex establishes a stronger foundation of identity for our partners, moving beyond the industry standard of document-only verification. Apex builds on that foundation with a multilayer validation for higher-risk use cases such as Medicare. Helix represents our highest level of identity confidence, rooted in witness verification and designed for the most sensitive, high-stakes environments. We hold ourselves to the highest standards because strengthening security, fighting fraud, and protecting privacy demands nothing less in a world where identity is security. We are building a GovTech vertical as the fraud we are fighting at CMS is endemic through other federal agencies. Getting true identity right is crucial to protect program integrity and fight fraud, waste, and abuse in our country. We have been working in government technology and federal partnerships for a long time, as reflected in our work with the Department of Homeland Security. The administration's executive order to fight fraud makes the mandate clear: strengthen eligibility verification, put controls in place before taxpayer dollars go out the door, and stop fraud before it happens. This administration prioritizes fighting fraud while enhancing experiences. We see that commitment in the executive order and initiatives like Trust accounts, which is a customer-centric and modern digital experience. We are well-positioned and working with leaders across agencies to deliver secure and customer-centric experiences. Identity is security. Security is now everything, and CLEAR is the company built to deliver it. We are moving with urgency to create seamless, secure experiences for our members and all Americans. With that, I'll turn it over to Jen. Jen Hsu: Thank you, Caryn. Since our IPO five years ago, we have built CLEAR into the leading secure identity platform. Over that time, our CLEAR Travel network expanded from 38 to 62 airports, and our member base grew nearly three and a half times from approximately $2.4 million to $8.3 million active CLEAR+ members. While we only increased the standard price of our membership by an average of 4% on an annualized basis. We accomplished this while investing prudently in our business and growing annual free cash flow from just slightly above breakeven to approaching half a billion dollars today. Within CLEAR Travel, we are continuing to expand our network, grow members and ARPU by delivering a compelling customer experience through product and services innovation, and ultimately driving strong member retention. On top of this, the investments we have made in our identity platform position us as a leader in security and identity infrastructure, with CLEAR1 scaling rapidly and further strengthening our growth profile. Our second quarter results showcased the demand for our differentiated industry-leading secure identity offerings with compelling top-line growth, meaningful margin expansion, and strong free cash flow generation. We delivered 33% bookings growth, 36% adjusted EBITDA margins, and $189 million of free cash flow, up 60% year-over-year. Notably, our adjusted EBITDA margin exceeded 35% target set at the time of our IPO, and our quarterly free cash flow reached a record high. Our Home to Gate strategy enabled another quarter of strong growth. Revenue grew 26.6% year-over-year to $277.8 million, and total bookings increased 32.8% to $295.9 million. We continue to meaningfully improve our member experience through eGates, our relaunched mobile app, and our expanding concierge offering, which is reflected in record NPS scores, strong member retention, and active CLEAR+ member growth of 15.2% to $8.3 million. This momentum is carrying through into Q3. We expanded our network with Indianapolis and Bentonville representing the two newest CLEAR+ airports, and CLEAR Concierge expanding to seven additional locations now available in 39 airports. CLEAR Concierge remains in its early innings with an opportunity to grow through footprint expansion, member awareness, and adoption. ARPU is growing, and effective July 1st, we increased standard pricing by $10 from $209 to $219, with corresponding changes across many airline pricing tiers. Family member pricing remained unchanged at $125. Our early retention rates have remained healthy following these price increases, and we believe we have a range of additional pricing opportunities that could meaningfully contribute to the long-term growth of our business. CLEAR1 momentum continues to build. The growing demand for our B2B offerings drove 30% year-over-year growth in total CLEAR members, reaching 43.5 million in the second quarter. We are seeing strength across every stage of the CLEAR1 lifecycle, from pipeline generation and new partner signings to expansion within our existing customer base and net revenue retention. Our pipeline reflects channel partnerships and expanding opportunity within government and growth in our healthcare workforce and consumer verticals. This quarter, we signed a significant number of new partners with average deal size continuing to increase. Our focus on customer success is expanding relationships with existing partners through additional use cases, which is driving strong net revenue retention. These trends support our meaningful bookings growth and reinforce the large and significant long-term opportunity for CLEAR1. We have maintained strong operational and cost discipline, and in the second quarter, we delivered approximately 70% adjusted EBITDA flow-through and meaningfully expanded free cash flow year-over-year. We generated $83 million of operating income and $101.1 million of adjusted EBITDA, representing a 36.4% adjusted EBITDA margin and approximately 900 basis points of margin expansion year-over-year. Labor has been a meaningful lever in our profitability story. eGates have driven significant labor efficiency, with Q2 direct salaries and benefits representing 17.3% of revenue, an improvement of approximately 450 basis points year-over-year, while also strengthening security and the member experience. That efficiency has turned what was once a pure cost center into a driver of top-line growth, enabling us to redeploy our ambassadors from lane operations towards hospitality and sales-generating initiatives such as concierge. For the full year, we continue to expect meaningful year-over-year adjusted EBITDA margin expansion, reflecting the leverage in our business model coupled with our team's operating discipline. Q2 net cash provided by operating activities was $201.2 million, and free cash flow was $189 million, representing 60.3% year-over-year growth. As a reminder, consistent with prior years, we will settle the accrued partnership liability with our credit card partner in the third quarter, resulting in negative Q3 free cash flow. This payout is reflected in our full-year free cash flow guidance. We ended the quarter with $959 million in over $7 per share of cash and marketable securities on our balance sheet. Quarter to date in Q3, we have repurchased approximately $22 million of shares at an average price of $52.73. Our liquidity position provides us strategic flexibility while simultaneously allowing us to invest behind the strong demand in operating fundamentals of our business. Turning to guidance. For Q3, we expect revenue of $284 million-$287 million and total bookings of $311 million-$316 million, representing 24.6% and 20.5% year-over-year growth at the midpoint respectively. We are also increasing our 2026 full year free cash flow guidance from at least $465 million to at least $480 million, which would represent an increase of at least 40% year-over-year. We will now open the call for Q&A. Operator: Thank you. The floor is now open for questions. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad at this time. A confirmation tone will indicate that your line is in the question queue. You may press star two if you would like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up the handset before pressing the star keys. We do ask that you please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up. Again, that's star one to register a question at this time. Today's first question is coming from Eric Sheridan of Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead. Eric Sheridan: Thanks so much for taking the question. I wanted to go a little bit deeper in some of the comments during the prepared remarks about the evolution of the home-to-gate strategy and how to think about concierge membership broadly over the medium to long term, both in terms of what you've learned about the scope for adoption as well as the scope for monetization and how that might build in the years ahead. Thanks so much. Caryn Seidman Becker: Thanks, Eric. Home-to-gate has always been the vision, right? That we want to help travelers win the day of travel and not just one point. When you look at the travel day, and we're all travelers, it's broken up into six different pieces. There's mobility, whether you're reserving a car or a parking spot or drop off. There's wayfinding, there's the line for bag drop, there's the wait for when your bags come off the plane. I always find it funny that smart people watch bags go around a carousel for a half-hour. There's the security experience and the unpredictability of it, whether it be no line or a half-hour line, you sort of have to solve for the worst part of it. Then there's the concessions. I'm a coffee drinker. It's 6:00 A.M. I want my coffee ready. I don't want to wait for another line and then be locked on a plane for a few hours. So the home-to-gate experience, which really starts with mobile and the ability to calendar sync, which gives us much more visibility into a traveler's day than just waiting for them to show up at the CLEAR lane, allows us to unlock all of these experiences and tie them together in a seamless way for members. So that is really important and that is what we are executing on. What you see now, and we talked about 1 million monthly average users, is really just the beginning. We see a higher NPS when you use the mobile app on your day of travel. From a concierge perspective, I would say that these are early days. Three important points. We're still not in cities like New York and L.A., which are really important cities to the network. We're working really hard to launch all of these cities so that we can have a much more holistic network and meet travelers where they are. In addition to that, I would say early days in marketing and awareness. Part of this is partnership and partners making travelers aware of this, hence our announcement with Expedia, and you should see more behind that. Corporate, which is a channel that historically we haven't driven on, right? It's really been B2C. The ability to open up those channels with not just single purchases but multi-pack purchases. Then it is driving awareness through our own channels, both digital marketing and with so many millions of members on the platform. That's another way to drive awareness. I think one of the things we think about when spending money on the marketing front is you really want to get a more complete network before you start putting a lot of dollars behind it. That is the plan for home to gate, and it starts with partners. You saw us announce concessions, partnerships, and pilots, and so the mobile app and the driving of it is really the glue that brings it all together. Then the eGates are just magical, and as we talked about, we're still only a little over two-thirds through that rollout, so a lot of growth there yet to come. Eric Sheridan: Great. Thank you. Operator: Thank you. The next question is coming from Joshua Reilly of Needham & Co. Please go ahead. Joshua Reilly: Great. Thanks for taking my questions. As we attended the Identity Summit in June in New York, it was pretty clear that there is significant momentum in growing corporate budgets for products and platforms like CLEAR1. How do you maintain your first-mover advantage? You clearly have a differentiated platform in the space and manage to go to market effectively and further develop use cases for corporate customers there. Caryn Seidman Becker: Thanks, Josh, and thanks for coming. It was a really special day and the first of many. It is great to be a convener of hundreds, I think well over 100 people in the industry came because everybody is seeing identity as critical infrastructure and identity as security. To bring people together from both the public and the private sectors to talk about the problem statement and how CLEAR is a great solution, but also just broader industry trends. Look, in terms of market leadership, and I think the Identity Summit started to show that, market leadership is about innovation and always raising the bar, and the launch of products this quarter reflect that. Vertex, Apex, and Helix really reflects our leadership from the front and raising the bar on industry standards. What people are using today really reflects yesterday, does not fight the problems of today and tomorrow with synthetic identities, with deep fakes, with injection attacks. Really our products reflecting multi-factor authentication at every level, and the higher risk level you go to, the more that we can do. Whether that be in Workforce, where we have a lot of very strong relationships and a very well-known brand, with Workforce, agentic is multiplying the number of employees, and there is an increasing need to get that foundational employee right, which is what we are known for, and who they are and what they should have access to. This critical connection between the human and the agent to authorize the agent to act on our behalf. CLEAR is in a unique position to provide human insurance to facilitate agentic authorization. We are known for that. We have done that hundreds of millions of times over 16 years, going back to leadership, the bigger our embedded network of identities is, the more powerful the customer experience is. That really feeds on itself. What you are seeing in government where, look, we have been partners with the Department of Homeland Security for 16 years. We are a qualified anti-terrorism technology. We are FISMA high. We surpass the NIST standards. There is a significant opportunity in government, hence really our focus on GovTech to fight fraud, waste, and abuse across federal and state programs. I think the more evidence, the more white papers, the more outcomes you have of driving efficiency for our partners, driving an unbelievable customer experience, being able to tie together the physical and the digital, and a large embedded network with a trusted brand and a team here that is so partner-centric and solution-centric, that all of this just keeps the momentum building at CLEAR1. The best form of competition is innovation, and we are innovating the living daylights out of identity and security. Jen Hsu: Josh, I would only add that we shared some context around the performance of CLEAR1 earlier on the call. We continue to scale the business very nicely and momentum is strong. We increased the number of our net new customer signings in Q2 by over 50% sequentially, Q1 into Q2, and we also grew our pipeline by over 50% quarter-on-quarter. That sets us up quite nicely for CLEAR1 performance in the back half of the year. Joshua Reilly: Awesome. In terms of the Amex partnership, we're now entering the first quarter of the new agreement. Is there anything we should be considering in terms of the accrual structure for the fiscal year-end of the contract over the next 12 months, and any changes to the statement credits or repaying Amex that we should be considering as we model that part of the business going forward? Thank you, guys. Jen Hsu: Sure. You saw in our filing, we have about a $315 million accrued partnership liability that will get paid out next quarter in Q3. There are no other implications to this year from a free cash flow perspective, and we can share more at the appropriate time. Operator: Thank you. The next question is coming from Dana Telsey of Telsey Advisory Group. Please go ahead. Dana Telsey: Hi. Good morning. Nice to see the progress, everyone. Congratulations on exceeding the adjusted EBITDA margin target of 35%, coming in at 36.4%. How do you think about that going forward? Beyond travel, any updates on the other sectors and segments that you've been partnering with as you look forward to the next stage of growth? Thank you. Jen Hsu: Sure. Dana, maybe I'll start and Caryn will take the second question. We are not introducing a specific new target today, but we do see, I would say, meaningful upside opportunity to our margin levels relative to where we are today. You have seen us grow top line quite significantly above the growth of our cost base, even as we've been investing in scaling several newer businesses and also making just general important investments into our identity platform. I think we've been very intentional about where we can extract leverage, eGates is a great example of that. Overall, we have made quite a bit of investment across our identity infrastructure, inclusive of travel and CLEAR1. We have a strong business model to support that, both recurring and subscription in nature on the B2C and the B2B side. Caryn Seidman Becker: Dana, I'll take the second part because I think that there's opportunities on both the travel side and CLEAR1. Again, when you look at CLEAR Travel, a little over 75% network growth. We have network growth opportunity, so I think of that as stores. We still only cover 75% of the U.S., and we are not in other countries yet. I see subscriber growth. I see win-back opportunities, which adds to subscriber growth because I think we can all acknowledge, as I've said, that the customer experience degraded in 2023 and 2024, and there's many a CLEAR member who left. We still had good growth through that period. I see the opportunity to reintroduce CLEAR. We see the opportunity to reintroduce CLEAR to those people as a lot of fuel to the fire in CLEAR Travel as we drive this home to gate experience. There's ARPU growth, both because, as Jen talked about, we've raised prices 4% on average since we IPO'd five years ago, and the customer experience and the network has been transformed since then. I believe that when you offer consumers compelling value, they will pay for it. We are seeing that. We're really thoughtful about ARPU and making sure that we deliver the customer experience first and foremost. As you both improve the customer experience, add to the network, and add new services, that drives ARPU. I think there's a lot of levers in that model, but it starts with the customer experience and the network growth and the partners. On CLEAR1, we talked a little bit about workforce, and you're continuing to see every day in the newspaper, there's a different call center challenge, there's different breaches, there's different exfiltration of data. Workforce, securing the workforce, securing the employees, making sure they are who they say they are, from interviewing to onboarding to network access management to agentic, is more important today than ever. In addition to that, when you do right by the workforce, we're seeing cross-sell and upsell opportunities to consumers, that's really exciting. In healthcare, there's two pieces to healthcare. Data interoperability is massively important, and we've talked about that before, but you're seeing that be a two-sided market, which is whether it be hospital systems or whether it be pharmacies. You want data interoperability or whether it be digital health. You want data interoperability flowing between all of those types. The key to that data interoperability is identity. You see healthcare and fraud, waste and abuse from a Medicare and a Medicaid opportunity. That's a federal, state, and local opportunity on the GovTech side. Workforce, healthcare, GovTech, obviously there's consumer and online opportunities because fraud is more prevalent than ever. At the end of the day, fraud is rooted in identity. Dana Telsey: Thank you. Operator: Thank you. The next question is coming from Michael Turrin of Wells Fargo. Please go ahead. Michael Turrin: Hey, good morning. Thanks for taking the question. Just on bookings, growth rate strong above 30% this quarter. You're guiding for low twenties next quarter. Maybe speak to the drivers of bookings upside this quarter as well as how you're thinking about normalized bookings growth rates over a longer period of time and some of the drivers you'd expect. If there's any way to help us just ballpark size the CLEAR1 contribution you're seeing at this stage, that's also helpful. Thanks very much. Jen Hsu: Sure. I'll take that. I guess I would say overall, our fundamental business drivers are quite positive at the moment. The Q3 rate of growth that's implied by our guidance is significantly higher than the approximately 14% growth that we delivered in Q3 of 2025. We also increased our full-year free cash flow guidance for the second time this year. You heard us talk about CLEAR Travel. We are seeing strong customer acquisition trends. We are seeing positive retention trends. Both of those metrics have maintained and the momentum is continuing into Q3. Caryn has talked a lot about the ways by which we believe we can continue growing both our member base and our pricing opportunities. On the member base side, I would say that includes growth of our existing markets. We look at that on a market-by-market basis. We think we have significant opportunity there. Network expansion, which we've talked about, that's airports. That could include additional lanes, growing new products and services like eGates and CLEAR Concierge. Then we have international opportunities and partnerships on top of that. Overall, we believe we have significant room to run on the member side. From a pricing perspective, we just increased price, as you saw, July 1st. We did not see any impact to retention. We think we can take measured price increases over time on a relative annual basis. We believe we have additional opportunities to adjust our discounted price points for certain member segments, and we also think that there are new pricing structures and packages, particularly as we grow our product and services innovation broadly. CLEAR Concierge is a great example of that. Michael Turrin: Thank you. Operator: Thank you. The next question is coming from Wyatt Swanson of D.A. Davidson. Please go ahead. Wyatt Swanson: Yeah. Thanks for the question. I appreciate it. I kind of want to follow up to that last question, hopefully get some more color as to the 3Q bookings guide and some of the moving pieces, sort of as it relates to adding CLEAR+ members, CLEAR1 contribution, and whether we should be modeling any meaningful changes in average bookings per member in the back half. Thanks. Jen Hsu: Sure. I guess I would reiterate a bit of what I just shared, which is that we continue to see strength in our customer acquisition and our retention trends remain healthy. I think together that supports a growing active CLEAR+ member base in Q3 and the balance of the year. From a bookings to member metric, effectively kind of a back into on ARPU, there are various ways to look into that. Given the price increases and our new credit card partnership, I think you can expect us to continue growing ARPU as we have kind of over the years. Wyatt Swanson: Got it. Okay, that's helpful. A follow-up. I believe you guys mentioned that you're not international yet, that sort of indicates that perhaps you're thinking about that expansion. Could you maybe just give some color on where you could potentially see international expansion and what that timeline might look like, over the medium to long term? Thanks. Caryn Seidman Becker: Yeah, this is Caryn. I think, first of all, you look at North America, you look at Canada and Mexico. Specifically North. I think that there's a lot of opportunities there, that's something that we're very interested in. I'm not going to give a timeline, to say that's something we're very interested in. Those are the most obvious to us, you look at Western Europe. South America. Those are the places that we are most interested in, I think there's different ways to go after those markets. I think if I look back over the past few years, I would've hoped we were further along on the domestic market network. We are getting there, that's very exciting to us. We didn't think it was appropriate to go and be half coverage in the U.S. and then offer you other markets. We're very focused on having a holistic customer experience, I think we're excited about our network growth. Indianapolis has been a great add this quarter. Again, there is plenty of markets where CLEAR is not currently at, those customers are clamoring for CLEAR. People see the experience. You go through an eGate, a triple at Newark or a double at JFK. You're flying through. It is the experience that you have in so many other parts of your life, you want it there. I think our airport partners or potential partners are hearing that, are seeing how we've delivered over the last few years on innovation and the customer experience, that's incredibly important. We see continued growth in the U.S., I would specifically point you to North American markets, in the near term. If I can just make one point on CLEAR1 that Sure. Michael Barkin: Just one additional thing on international is, in partnership with TSA last year, we got approval, as we've talked about, to enroll international members from the 42 visa waiver countries. We are seeing actually good pickup in organic growth from international members using our product across our U.S. network. That's certainly an encouraging start to the international expansion. Caryn Seidman Becker: If I can just wrap up with your question on CLEAR1. As Jen mentioned, the contract sizes are growing. We're focused on growing them aggressively, which could add to chunkiness, right, and timing. We understand that, and we're excited for these opportunities, but that could add to chunkiness of timing to your question. We will go after these huge contracts all day long. Wyatt Swanson: Great. Thank you, guys. Appreciate it. Operator: Thank you. At this time, I would like to turn the floor back over to Caryn for closing comments. Caryn Seidman Becker: Thanks for joining our second quarter earnings call. Identity is security, and I want to thank the CLEAR team for working tirelessly to help strengthen security for all of our CLEAR members and partners. Thanks. Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's event. You may disconnect your lines or log off the webcast at this time, enjoy the rest of your day. Before you buy stock in Clear Secure, 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 Clear Secure wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. 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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 positions in and recommends Clear Secure. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Clear Secure (YOU) Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript was originally published by The Motley Fool

Interested in CLEAR Secure, Inc.? Here are five stocks we like better. Strong Q2 performance: Total bookings rose 32.8% to $295.9 million and revenue increased 26.6% to $277.8 million. CLEAR reached a 36.4% adjusted EBITDA margin and generated record quarterly free cash flow of $189 million. Travel business continued expanding: Total members grew 30% year over year to 43.5 million, while CLEAR+ members reached 8.3 million. The company added airport locations, expanded Concierge to 39 airports, deployed eGates across more than 70% of its network and raised standard membership pricing to $219. CLEAR1 gained momentum, while near-term cash flow faces a payment: New customer signings and the pipeline each increased more than 50% sequentially as demand grew across government, healthcare, workforce and consumer markets. CLEAR expects third-quarter negative free cash flow due to a roughly $315 million partnership-liability payment, but raised full-year 2026 free-cash-flow guidance to at least $480 million. CLEAR Secure (NYSE:YOU) reported fiscal second-quarter 2026 results marked by double-digit bookings and revenue growth, expanding profitability and record quarterly free cash flow, while management highlighted continued investment in airport services and its CLEAR1 identity platform. The company ended the quarter with 43.5 million total members, up 30% year over year, and 8.3 million active CLEAR+ members, up 15.2%. Total bookings rose 32.8% to $295.9 million, while revenue increased 26.6% to $277.8 million. → No Hangover: Revisiting Microsoft One Week After Earnings Founder, Chair and Chief Executive Officer Caryn Seidman Becker said the company generated $189 million in free cash flow during the quarter, a 60% increase from a year earlier. She also said CLEAR surpassed the 35% adjusted EBITDA margin target established at the time of its IPO five years ago, reporting a 36.4% adjusted EBITDA margin. Management attributed travel-business momentum to its “home-to-gate” strategy, which combines airport security access with mobile travel tools, concierge services and other airport offerings. Becker said the company’s mobile app, which includes calendar synchronization, travel guidance, airport wayfinding and live updates, is averaging 1 million monthly users. → MarketBeat Week in Review – 08/03 - 08/07 CLEAR continued expanding its airport footprint during the quarter. Chief Financial Officer Jen Hsu said Indianapolis and Bentonville became the company’s two newest CLEAR+ airport locations. CLEAR Concierge, its service offering airport assistance, expanded to seven additional locations and is now available in 39 airports. The company also cited continued rollout of its eGates, which covered more than 70% of its network at quarter-end. According to Becker, the gates enable member verification in under five seconds. Hsu said eGates improved labor efficiency, with direct salaries and benefits declining to 17.3% of revenue from the prior-year period, an improvement of approximately 450 basis points. → Why the Landlord of the AI Boom Could Outlast the Chipmakers “That efficiency has turned what was once a pure cost center into a driver of top-line growth,” Hsu said, adding that the company has redeployed ambassadors from lane operations toward hospitality and sales-related initiatives such as concierge services. CLEAR also began testing new airport commerce initiatives. Becker said the company launched its first concessions partnership at Newark and is beginning a Starbucks pilot at LaGuardia, where members can order coffee in advance for pickup on their way to a gate. Effective July 1, CLEAR increased standard membership pricing by $10 to $219, with changes also made across many airline pricing tiers. Family-member pricing remained at $125. Hsu said early retention rates have remained healthy following the increases and management sees additional long-term pricing opportunities. Beyond travel, management emphasized opportunities for CLEAR1, the company’s business-to-business identity platform. Becker said rising concerns around synthetic identities, deepfakes and fraud are increasing demand for stronger identity-verification systems across workforce, healthcare, consumer and government applications. During the quarter, CLEAR introduced an identity framework featuring three proprietary products: Vertex, Apex and Helix. Becker said Vertex is intended to provide a stronger identity foundation beyond document-only verification; Apex adds multilayer validation for higher-risk uses such as Medicare; and Helix is designed for high-stakes settings and uses witness verification. The company said it is developing a GovTech vertical, citing opportunities to address fraud, waste and abuse across federal and state programs. Becker pointed to CLEAR’s longstanding work with the Department of Homeland Security and said the company is working with agency leaders around secure and customer-focused identity experiences. Hsu said CLEAR1 signed a significant number of new partners in the quarter, with average deal sizes increasing. Net-new customer signings increased more than 50% sequentially from the first quarter, while the pipeline grew more than 50% quarter over quarter, she said. The company is seeing demand from channel partnerships, government, healthcare, workforce and consumer verticals. Management noted that larger CLEAR1 contracts could create variability in the timing of bookings. Becker said the company intends to pursue large contracts as it expands the platform. CLEAR reported operating income of $83 million and adjusted EBITDA of $101.1 million, representing approximately 900 basis points of adjusted EBITDA margin expansion year over year. Hsu said the company delivered about 70% adjusted EBITDA flow-through during the quarter. Net cash provided by operating activities totaled $201.2 million, and free cash flow reached $189 million. The company ended the quarter with $959 million, or more than $7 per share, in cash and marketable securities. During the third quarter to date, CLEAR repurchased approximately $22 million of shares at an average price of $52.73. Hsu noted that the company expects negative free cash flow in the third quarter because it will settle an accrued partnership liability with its credit-card partner. The company disclosed an approximately $315 million accrued partnership liability that is scheduled to be paid in the third quarter, though management said the payment is already reflected in full-year guidance. Third-quarter revenue guidance: $284 million to $287 million. Third-quarter total bookings guidance: $311 million to $316 million. Full-year 2026 free-cash-flow guidance: at least $480 million, raised from at least $465 million. At the midpoint, the third-quarter outlook implies year-over-year revenue growth of 24.6% and bookings growth of 20.5%, according to the company. Management also discussed future network expansion, including potential opportunities in Canada and Mexico, while Becker said the company remains focused on building more comprehensive U.S. airport coverage before pursuing international markets more broadly. President Michael Barkin added that CLEAR has approval through its TSA partnership to enroll international members from 42 visa-waiver countries and is seeing organic growth from those members using the U.S. network. CLEAR Secure, Inc operates a biometric identity platform designed to expedite identity verification for air travelers and venue guests. The company’s core offering is the CLEAR membership service, which uses fingerprint and iris scans to confirm a member’s identity and provide access to dedicated security lanes at participating airports. Members link government-issued IDs and personal biometric data via the CLEAR app, enabling faster processing through Transportation Security Administration (TSA) checkpoints and select event entrances. Founded in 2010 by Caryn Seidman‐Becker and Ken Cornick, CLEAR is headquartered in New York City. 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 "CLEAR Secure Q2 Earnings Call Highlights" was originally published by MarketBeat. View MarketBeat's top stocks for August 2026.

Find your next quality investment with Simply Wall St's easy and powerful screener, trusted by over 7 million individual investors worldwide. Clear Secure (YOU) just combined a stronger than expected second quarter, record free cash flow and higher full year guidance with a new quarterly dividend. That mix is drawing fresh attention from investors. See our latest analysis for Clear Secure. Clear Secure's share price has had a mixed few months, with the 7 day share price return declining 3.31% and the 90 day share price return declining 2.94%. However, the year to date share price return of 64.22% and 1 year total shareholder return of 76.72% point to momentum that has built over a longer stretch as investors react to stronger earnings, higher free cash flow guidance and the new dividend. If Clear Secure's recent move has you thinking about where else strong operational updates might be showing up in prices, this can be a useful moment to scan 56 AI infrastructure stocks Clear Secure now combines rapid member growth, higher free cash flow guidance and a fresh dividend. The business appears strong on paper. The next step is assessing whether the current share price fairly reflects that strength. Clear Secure's most followed narrative sees fair value at $62 compared with the last close of $56.46, which frames the recent rally in a different light. Read the complete narrative. Want to see why this narrative treats Clear Secure as undervalued at today’s price? The case rests on faster earnings growth, improving margins and a richer future multiple. Curious how those ingredients combine into a single fair value number? The full narrative lays out the assumptions driving that $62 figure. Result: Fair Value of $62 (UNDERVALUED) Have a read of the narrative in full and understand what's behind the forecasts. However, Clear Secure's story can change quickly if leadership execution slips or key credit card partnerships become less favorable, which could weigh on revenue and margins. Find out about the key risks to this Clear Secure narrative. The first narrative treats Clear Secure as about 8.9% undervalued against a $62 fair value. A simple P/E check tells a different story. The stock trades at 39x earnings compared with 32.5x for the US Software industry, 27x for peers and a fair ratio of 36.4x. That puts Clear Secure on a richer multiple than both its sector and peer group while sitting above the P/E level the fair ratio suggests the market could move toward over time. For you, the question is whether the current premium reflects durable strengths or leaves less room for error if expectations soften. See what the numbers say about this price — find out in our valuation breakdown. Given the mixed signals around Clear Secure, it makes sense to move quickly and check the underlying data for yourself instead of relying on headlines. To see the balance of concerns and potential upsides in one place, review the 2 key rewards and 2 important warning signs. If Clear Secure has sharpened your focus on quality, do not stop here. Give yourself options by lining up a few fresh ideas to compare. Target reliable income opportunities by reviewing 8 dividend fortresses that may suit investors who want cash returns alongside potential capital growth. Spot potential mispricings early and weigh them against Clear Secure by checking 51 high quality undervalued stocks that stand out on fundamentals. Prioritize capital preservation without sitting on the sidelines by scanning 79 resilient stocks with low risk scores that score well on resilience metrics. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned. Companies discussed in this article include YOU. Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email [email protected]

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. Performance was driven by a 33% increase in bookings and record free cash flow, reflecting years of disciplined execution in building a trusted identity platform. Management attributes the 36.4% adjusted EBITDA margin—surpassing the 35% IPO target—to the power of the business model and strategic investments in technology. The 'Home to Gate' strategy is evolving from a vision to reality, utilizing a mobile app with 1 million monthly users to unify the travel journey through wayfinding and concessions. Operational efficiency has improved via eGates, which now cover more than 70% of the network and allow for the redeployment of staff to sales-generating roles. The market environment is characterized by escalating threats from AI-generated deep fakes and synthetic identities, positioning CLEAR's identity framework as essential security infrastructure. Strategic positioning is shifting toward a GovTech vertical to combat endemic fraud in federal agencies, aligning with administration mandates for strengthened eligibility verification. Full-year 2026 free cash flow guidance was raised to at least $480 million, representing a projected increase of at least 40% year-over-year. Management assumes continued ARPU growth following a $10 standard price increase on July 1st, noting that early retention rates have remained healthy. The CLEAR1 pipeline is expected to scale through channel partnerships and expansion into healthcare workforce and consumer verticals. Future growth strategy includes expanding the domestic airport network to reach the remaining 25% of the U.S. market before pursuing international expansion in North America and Western Europe. The company plans to leverage its liquidity position of $959 million for strategic flexibility and continued investment in operating fundamentals. A $315 million accrued partnership liability with a credit card partner will be settled in Q3, which will result in negative free cash flow for that specific quarter. Management acknowledged that the customer experience 'degraded' in 2023 and 2024, creating a strategic focus on winning back members who left during that period. The transition to larger contract sizes in the CLEAR1 B2B segment is expected to introduce 'chunkiness' and timing variability in bookings. Labor costs as a percentage of revenue improved by 450 basis points year-over-year due to the successful implementation of automated eGate technology. One stock. Nvidia-level potential. 30M+ investors trust Moby to find it first. Get the pick. Tap here. Concierge is in early stages with significant expansion potential in major markets like New York and L.A. where it has not yet launched. Monetization will be driven by moving beyond B2C to corporate channels and multi-pack purchases, supported by partnerships like Expedia. Advantage is maintained through innovation in multi-factor authentication (Vertex, Apex, Helix) to fight modern threats like injection attacks. The embedded network of 44 million identities creates a powerful network effect that is difficult for competitors to replicate. Management stated that the July 1st price increase to $219 has not negatively impacted retention trends thus far. There is a belief that additional pricing opportunities exist by adjusting discounted price points for specific member segments. Management is prioritizing a 'holistic' domestic network before moving abroad but identified Canada and Mexico as the most immediate interests. Organic growth is already occurring from international members in 42 visa-waiver countries using the existing U.S. network.

This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Revenue: $277.8 million, up 26.6% year-over-year. Total Bookings: $295.9 million, up 32.8% year-over-year. Adjusted EBITDA: $101.1 million, representing a 36.4% margin, surpassing the 35% IPO target. Free Cash Flow: $189 million, up 60% year-over-year, a record quarterly high. Operating Income: $83 million. Active CLEAR+ Members: 8.3 million, up 15.2% year-over-year. Total CLEAR Members: 43.5 million, up 30% year-over-year. Direct Salaries and Benefits: 17.3% of revenue, an improvement of approximately 450 basis points year-over-year. Cash and Marketable Securities: $959 million, over $7 per share. Q3 2026 Guidance: Revenue expected between $284 million and $287 million; total bookings expected between $311 million and $316 million. Full-Year 2026 Free Cash Flow Guidance: Increased to at least $480 million, representing at least 40% year-over-year growth. Warning! GuruFocus has detected 6 Warning Sign with YOU. Is YOU fairly valued? Test your thesis with our free DCF calculator. Release Date: August 05, 2026 For the complete transcript of the earnings call, please refer to the full earnings call transcript. Clear Secure Inc (NYSE:YOU) delivered 33% bookings growth and record free cash flow of $189 million, up 60% year-over-year. Adjusted EBITDA margin reached 36.4%, surpassing the company's IPO target of 35% for the first time. Active CLEAR+ members grew 15.2% to 8.3 million, with strong retention and record NPS scores. CLEAR1 momentum is strong, with net new customer signings up over 50% sequentially and pipeline growth of over 50% quarter-over-quarter. The company raised full-year 2026 free cash flow guidance to at least $480 million, representing at least 40% year-over-year growth. Q3 bookings growth guidance of 20.5% at midpoint implies a slowdown from the 32.8% growth in Q2. The company will settle a $315 million accrued partnership liability in Q3, leading to negative free cash flow for that quarter. International expansion remains limited, with no timeline for entry into markets beyond North America. CLEAR1 contract sizes are growing, which could lead to lumpy revenue timing and potential volatility. The company has only covered about 75% of the US airport network, leaving significant domestic expansion still to be executed. Q: How should we think about the evolution of the Home-to-Gate strategy and the scope for adoption and monetization of Concierge membership over the medium to long-term?A: Caryn Becker, CEO, explained that Home-to-Gate aims to help travelers win the entire travel day, not just one point. The strategy breaks the travel day into six parts: mobility, wayfinding, bag drop, baggage claim, security, and concessions. The mobile app, with calendar sync, provides visibility into the traveler's day and ties these experiences together. Concierge is in early innings, not yet in key cities like New York and LA, and marketing is still nascent. The company plans to expand partnerships (like Expedia) and corporate channels to drive awareness, but will wait for a more complete network before heavy marketing spend. eGates, which are only two-thirds rolled out, remain a key growth driver. Q: How does CLEAR maintain its first-mover advantage in the corporate identity space and effectively manage go-to-market for CLEAR1?A: Caryn Becker, CEO, stated that market leadership is about innovation and raising the bar, exemplified by the launch of Vertex, Apex, and Helix products. These products address modern threats like synthetic identities and deepfakes with multi-factor authentication. CLEAR's unique position in agentic authorization, its embedded network of identities, and its government credentials (FISMA high, NIST standards) provide a competitive edge. Jen Hsu, CFO, added that net new customer signings grew over 50% sequentially from Q1 to Q2, and the pipeline also grew over 50% quarter-on-quarter, setting up strong back-half performance. Q: With the new Amex partnership, are there any changes to the accrual structure or statement credits to consider for the fiscal year-end?A: Jen Hsu, CFO, confirmed that the company has a $315 million accrued partnership liability that will be paid out in Q3. There are no other implications to this year's free cash flow from the new agreement, and the company will share more details at the appropriate time. Q: Now that adjusted EBITDA margins have exceeded the 35% IPO target at 36.4%, how should we think about margins going forward? And what are the updates on other sectors beyond travel?A: Jen Hsu, CFO, noted there is no new specific target, but there is meaningful upside opportunity to current margin levels due to top-line growth outpacing cost growth. Caryn Becker, CEO, highlighted growth levers in CLEAR Travel: network expansion (only 75% US coverage), subscriber growth and win-backs, and ARPU growth through price increases and new services. For CLEAR1, opportunities exist in workforce security, healthcare (data interoperability and fraud prevention), GovTech, and consumer/online fraud prevention. Q: What drove the strong bookings growth this quarter, and how should we think about normalized bookings growth rates and the CLEAR1 contribution?A: Jen Hsu, CFO, stated that fundamental business drivers are positive, with strong customer acquisition and retention trends continuing into Q3. The Q3 growth rate implied by guidance is significantly higher than the 14% growth in Q3 2025. Growth drivers include existing market growth, network expansion, new products like eGates and Concierge, and international opportunities. On pricing, the July 1 price increase had no impact on retention, and there are additional opportunities for measured price increases and new pricing structures. Q: Can you provide more color on the Q3 bookings guide, CLEAR+ member adds, CLEAR1 contribution, and any changes in average bookings per member?A: Jen Hsu, CFO, reiterated strength in customer acquisition and healthy retention trends, supporting a growing active CLEAR+ member base in Q3. Given price increases and the new credit card partnership, the company expects to continue growing ARPU as it has over the years. Q: Where could international expansion occur, and what is the timeline?A: Caryn Becker, CEO, indicated interest in North America (Canada and Mexico) as the most obvious near-term opportunities, followed by Western Europe and South America. The company is focused on completing a holistic US network before expanding internationally. An additional note was made about TSA approval to enroll international members from 42 Visa Waiver countries, which is already showing good organic pickup. Q: How is the company thinking about the balance between investing for growth and margin expansion, particularly with the strong free cash flow generation?A: Jen Hsu, CFO, highlighted that the company has been intentional about extracting leverage, with eGates being a prime example, driving significant labor efficiency. The company has invested across identity infrastructure for both Travel and CLEAR1, supported by a strong recurring and subscription-based business model. The full-year free cash flow guidance was increased to at least $480 million, representing at least 40% year-over-year growth. For the complete transcript of the earnings call, please refer to the full earnings call transcript.

NEW YORK, Aug. 5, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Clear Secure, Inc. (NYSE: YOU), the secure identity company, has released financial results for the second quarter 2026 on its Investor Relations website at https://ir.clearme.com. Second Quarter Financial Highlights (percentage change is expressed as year-over-year, unless otherwise specified) Revenue of $277.8 million was up 26.6%; Total Bookings of $295.9 million increased 32.8% Operating income of $83.0 million, representing a 29.9% operating income margin Net income of $72.3 million, representing a 26.0% net income margin Adjusted EBITDA of $101.1 million, representing a 36.4% Adjusted EBITDA margin and 900 basis points of year-over-year margin expansion, exceeding long-term Adjusted EBITDA margin target of 35% Earnings per Common Share Basic and Diluted of $0.50 and $0.49, respectively Net cash provided by operating activities of $201.2 million; Free Cash Flow of $189.0 million Operational Achievements Total CLEAR Members grew to 43.5 million, up 30.0% year-over-year and Active CLEAR+ Members grew to 8.3 million, up 15.2% year-over-year, as of June 30, 2026 62 CLEAR+ airports, including second quarter launches of Northwest Arkansas (Bentonville) and Indianapolis, and 280 retail locations with TSA PreCheck® Enrollment Provided by CLEAR as of June 30, 2026 eGates launched across 50 airports as of today; on track for network wide rollout in 2026 CLEAR Concierge, a premium, personalized on-demand airport service now offered at 39 airports Continued strong momentum in CLEAR1 across core verticals Capital Allocation Activities Approximately $22.2 million returned to shareholders in the second quarter of 2026, related to our regular quarterly dividend of $0.15 per share and distributions Clear Secure, Inc. announced today that its Board of Directors has declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.15 per share, payable on September 24, 2026 to shareholders of record of Class A Common Stock as of the close of business on September 10, 2026 Third Quarter and Full Year 2026 Guidance Third quarter 2026 Revenue of $284-287 million, representing 24.6% year-over-year growth at the midpoint Third quarter 2026 Total Bookings of $311-316 million, representing 20.5% year-over-year growth at the midpoint Full Year 2026 Free Cash Flow guidance increased from at least $465 million to at least $480 million, representing at least 39.9% year-over-year growth "Identity has become critical infrastructure and CLEAR has firmly established itself as the trusted, secure identity company. Our second quarter results demonstrate the strength we are seeing across CLEAR Travel and CLEAR1, and we have never been better positioned for what's ahead," said Caryn Seidman Becker, CLEAR's CEO. Conference Call Details CLEAR will host a conference call to discuss these results at 8:00 AM (ET) today. Investors and analysts can access the live teleconference call by dialing toll-free 877-407-3089 for U.S. participants and +1-215-268-9854 for international participants. Listeners can access the live webcast at https://event.choruscall.com/mediaframe/webcast.html?webcastid=NTtHOW8v. A webcast replay will be available after the event on the investor relations website at https://ir.clearme.com. About CLEAR The mission of CLEAR, the secure identity company, is to strengthen security and create frictionless experiences. With over 43 million Members and a growing network of partners across the world, CLEAR's secure identity platform is transforming the way people live, work, and travel. Whether you are traveling, at the stadium, or on your phone, CLEAR connects you to the things that make you, you—making everyday experiences easier, more secure, and friction-free. CLEAR is committed to privacy done right. Members are always in control of their own information, and we do not sell biometric or sensitive personal data. For more information, visit clearme.com. Key Performance Indicators Definitions of Key Performance Indicators To evaluate performance of the business, we utilize a variety of other non-GAAP financial reporting and performance measures. These key measures include Total Bookings, Total CLEAR Members, and Active CLEAR+ Members. Total Bookings Total Bookings represent our total revenue plus the change in deferred revenue during the period. Total Bookings in any particular period reflect sales to new and renewing CLEAR+ subscribers plus any accrued billings to partners. Management believes that Total Bookings is an important measure of the current health and growth of the business and views it as a leading indicator. Total CLEAR Members We define Total CLEAR Members as the cumulative number of Members that have registered for the CLEAR platform since inception as of the end of the period. This includes Members who have enrolled through CLEAR+, trials, single-use product purchases, other non-paid uses of the CLEAR platform, and associated family accounts. Total CLEAR Members exclude members who are solely marketing opt-ins and purged accounts, and are adjusted to remove identified duplicate non-paid accounts. Management views this metric as an important tool to analyze the efficacy of our growth and marketing initiatives as new Members are potentially a current and leading indicator of revenues. Active CLEAR+ Members We define Active CLEAR+ Members as the number of members with an active CLEAR+ subscription as of the end of the period. This includes CLEAR+ members who have an activated payment method, plus associated family accounts and is inclusive of Members who are in a trial or in a billing grace period. Management views this as an important tool to measure the growth of its CLEAR+ product. Prior period Active CLEAR+ Members have been recast to reflect the removal of certain lapsed accounts identified in connection with a billing system transformation project undertaken during 2025. This recast had no impact on our consolidated financial statements or non-GAAP financial measures. There has been no other change in the calculation of Active CLEAR+ Members. Non-GAAP Financial Measures In addition to our results as determined in accordance with GAAP, we disclose Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA Margin, and Free Cash Flow as non-GAAP financial measures that management believes provide useful information to investors. These measures are not financial measures calculated in accordance with GAAP and should not be considered as a substitute for net income, net income margin, net cash provided by (used in) operating activities or any other operating performance measure calculated in accordance with GAAP, and may not be comparable to a similarly titled measure reported by other companies. Our Non-GAAP financial measures are expressed in thousands, unless otherwise indicated. We periodically reassess the components of our Non-GAAP adjustments for changes in how we evaluate our performance and changes in how we make financial and operational decisions to ensure the adjustments remain relevant and meaningful. Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA Margin We define Adjusted EBITDA as net income adjusted for income taxes, interest (income), net, depreciation and amortization, impairment and losses on asset disposals, equity-based compensation expense, net other (income) expense excluding sublease rental income, acquisition-related costs and changes in fair value of contingent consideration. We define Adjusted EBITDA Margin as Adjusted EBITDA expressed as percentage of revenue. Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA Margin are important financial measures used by management and our board of directors ("Board") to evaluate business performance. We believe Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA Margin assist investors in evaluating the performance of the Company's core operations by excluding certain items that impact the comparability of results from period to period. Free Cash Flow We define Free Cash Flow as net cash (used in) provided by operating activities adjusted for purchases of property. We believe Free Cash Flow provides useful information to management and investors about the Company's liquidity and cash flow trends. With regards to our CLEAR+ subscription service, we generally collect cash from our Members upfront for annual subscriptions. As a result, when the business is growing Free Cash Flow can be a real time indicator of the current trajectory of the business. See below for reconciliations of these non-GAAP financial measures to their most comparable GAAP measures. Cautionary Note Concerning Forward-Looking Statements This release may contain statements that constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 with respect to the Company's future financial or business performance, strategies or expectations, and as such are not historical facts. This includes, without limitation, statements regarding the Company's financial position, capital structure, business strategy and plans and objectives of management for future operations, as well as statements regarding business momentum, growth, anticipated demand for our products and services and our business prospects during 2026, as well as expected impacts from our pricing actions, and our guidance for the third quarter and full year 2026. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements because they contain words such as "anticipate," "believe," "contemplate," "continue," "could," "estimate," "expect," "forecast," "guidance," "intend," "may," "plan," "potential," "predict," "project," "seek," "should," "target," "will" or "would" or the negative of these words or other similar terms or expressions, although not all forward-looking statements contain these identifying words. The forward-looking statements contained in this release are based on current expectations and beliefs concerning future developments and their potential effects on the Company. Investors are cautioned that any and such forward looking statement are not guarantees of future performance or results and involve risks and uncertainties (some of which are beyond the Company's control), and that actual results, developments and events may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, including but not limited to: risks relating to adding and retaining Members and partners, including Active CLEAR+ Members, or failing to increase the utilization of our platform; our inability to meet stakeholder expectations or maintain the value and reputation of our brand; failure to successfully compete, and the highly competitive market in which we operate; risks associated with the increased adoption of new technological solutions and services, including first-party identity verification solutions and credential authentication solutions; public confidence in, and acceptance of, identity platforms and biometrics generally, and our platform specifically; failure to successfully implement strategies to increase adoption of our platform or expand into new verticals; risks associated with our commercial agreements and strategic alliances, as well as potential indemnification obligations and certain of our agreements with first parties; risks related to the dependence of portions of our business and results of operations on concessionaire agreements; risks associated with our growth and ability to develop and introduce platform features and offerings, and the need for adequate research and development resources; risks associated with any decline or disruption in the travel industry or a general economic downturn; risks related to our need for additional capital to support our business growth and objectives, and risks that this capital may not be available to us on reasonable terms (or at all) and may result in shareholder dilution; risks associated with acquisitions and other strategic transactions; the need for high-quality personnel; risks associated with the complexity of our platform, including the negative impacts of any errors, system failures or the successful implementation of upgrades or new technology; the risk that our marketing efforts may not be effective; risks associated with changes in the Internet browsers and mobile device accessibility of Members; the ability to maintain our corporate culture; risks associated with payment processing; risks relating to prospective public private partnerships in airports; potential adverse impacts of climate change; our limited experience operating outside of the United States and risks associated with international operations; risks associated with breaches of our information technology systems or those of first parties upon which we rely, protection of our intellectual property, technology and confidential information and failures by first-party technology and devices on which our business relies; our reliance on first-party technology and information systems and our ability to find alternatives if such technology and information systems fail; potential liability due to the infringement on first-party intellectual property by technologies that we incorporate into our products; our ability to meet the standards set for our airport operations by governmental stakeholders; the risk that we may be sued by first parties for alleged infringement, misappropriation or other violations of intellectual property and other proprietary rights; risks associated with the actual or perceived failure to comply with applicable biometrics, artificial intelligence, health information and data privacy laws; failure to comply with the constantly evolving laws and regulations that we are or may become subject to; potential legal proceedings, regulatory disputes and governmental inquiries; coverage afforded under our insurance policies may be inadequate; risks associated with the use of "open source" software; limitations of the SAFETY Act's liability protections; risks associated with our financial performance, including the risk of increased expenses and net losses in the near term and our ability to achieve or sustain profitability in the future; the failure of our estimates or judgments relating to our critical accounting policies; the risk that our focus on delivering a safe, reliable, predictable and frictionless Member experience may not maximize short-term financial results, which may yield results that conflict with the market's expectations and could result in our stock price being negatively affected; risks associated with our structure as a holding company, and our reliance on Alclear Holdings, LLC for certain distributions; risks associated with dividend payments and share repurchases; risks associated with our organizational structure, including those related to our Tax Receivable Agreement; the control of the Company by our co-founder, whose interests in our business may be different than those of our other stockholders; restrictions under our Credit Agreement; the unpredictable nature of tax attributes that will impact our tax treatment; substantial future sales of shares of our Class A Common Stock could cause our stock price to fall; failure to maintain adequate internal controls; the risk that provisions in our charter documents and certain rules imposed by regulatory authorities may delay or prevent our acquisition by a first party; the volatility of our stock price; risks related to the founder performance-based restricted stock unit awards granted at the time of our initial public offering; future issuances of securities, including preferred securities, the terms of which could adversely affect the voting power or value of our Common Stock; and other risks and uncertainties indicated in the Company's Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") common stock reports or documents filed or to be filed with the SEC. Forward-looking statements included in this release speak only as of the date of this release or any earlier date specified for such statements. The Company disclaims any obligation to update any forward looking statements contained herein. All subsequent written or oral forward-looking statements attributable to the Company or persons acting on the Company's behalf may be qualified in their entirety by this Cautionary Note Concerning Forward-Looking Statements . Reconciliation of Net Income to Adjusted EBITDA and Net Income Margin to Adjusted EBITDA Margin: Reconciliation of Net Cash Provided by Operating Activities to Free Cash Flow: Investor [email protected] Media [email protected] View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/clear-announces-second-quarter-2026-financial-results-302842856.html

Clear Secure (YOU) came out with quarterly earnings of $0.49 per share, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $0.4 per share. This compares to earnings of $0.26 per share a year ago. These figures are adjusted for non-recurring items. This quarterly report represents an earnings surprise of +22.50%. A quarter ago, it was expected that this airport security company would post earnings of $0.35 per share when it actually produced earnings of $0.38, delivering a surprise of +8.57%. Over the last four quarters, the company has surpassed consensus EPS estimates three times. Clear Secure, which belongs to the Zacks Internet - Software industry, posted revenues of $277.76 million for the quarter ended June 2026, surpassing the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 2.91%. This compares to year-ago revenues of $219.47 million. 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. Clear Secure shares have added about 58.9% since the beginning of the year versus the S&P 500's gain of 13%. While Clear Secure has outperformed 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 Clear Secure 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 $0.42 on $277.3 million in revenues for the coming quarter and $1.61 on $1.09 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, Internet - Software is currently in the top 44% 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. Another stock from the same industry, BILL Holdings (BILL), has yet to report results for the quarter ended June 2026. The results are expected to be released on August 19. This payment processing software company is expected to post quarterly earnings of $0.69 per share in its upcoming report, which represents a year-over-year change of +30.2%. The consensus EPS estimate for the quarter has remained unchanged over the last 30 days. BILL Holdings' revenues are expected to be $429.71 million, up 12.1% 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 CLEAR Secure, Inc. (YOU) : Free Stock Analysis Report BILL Holdings, Inc. (BILL) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com). Zacks Investment Research