Trade Desk CFO change shows continued volatility, says Wells Fargo

Wells Fargo keeps an Equal Weight rating on Trade Desk (TTD) with a $42 price target after the company announced a CFO transition and reaffirmed its Q4 outlook. The stock in morning trading is down 6% to $34.42. Given that CFO Alex Kayyal joined Trade Desk six months ago, the announcement signals “continued fundamental and narrative volatility,” the analyst tells investors in a research note. Wells believes management turnover is likely contributing to difficulty for the company to counter the Amazon (AMZN) demand-side platform competition narrative. It believes Trade Desk should seek out a candidate with public company CFO experience as neither of its prior CFOs had such experience.