The Trade Desk, Inc. (NASDAQ:TTD) shares are trading lower in the premarket session on Wednesday.

Rosenblatt analyst Barton Crockett downgraded the stock from Buy to Neutral, lowering the price forecast from $36 to $25.

According to Benzinga Pro, TTD stock has lost over 53% in the past year. Investors can gain exposure to the stock via Goldman Sachs Equal Weight U.S. Large Cap Equity ETF (BATS:GSEW).

Also, Stifel analyst Mark Kelley downgraded Trade Desk from Buy to Hold, lowering the price forecast from $48 to $26.

Yesterday, the company’s stocks traded sharply lower following reports that Publicis Groupe, one of the world’s largest advertising holding companies, had advised its clients to stop using the demand-side platform.

Trade Desk Faces Allegations of Improper Fee Charges

According to Ad Age, the shift comes after a third-party audit conducted by FirmDecisions concluded that The Trade Desk “failed” to meet the terms of its master service agreement.

The audit reportedly identified several financial and operational violations, including the improper application of fees and instances in which clients were automatically opted into paid features without their consent.

Ad Age also noted that Publicis claimed the platform failed to prove that media and data costs were provided without unauthorized mark-ups.

The Trade Desk Disputes Audit Results Citing Data Privacy

While The Trade Desk has disputed these findings, asserting it restricted certain data only to protect partner confidentiality, Publicis maintained that the proposed resolutions were unsatisfactory.

This development is a major blow to investor confidence because Publicis acts as a primary gatekeeper for billions of dollars in advertising spend.

A formal “non-recommendation” from such a titan threatens The Trade Desk’s core revenue stream and suggests potential deep-seated friction in its agency relationships.

CEO Green Discloses $148M Stake Hike

CEO Jeffrey Terry Green shocked Wall Street by disclosing a significant personal stake increase. Between March 2 and March 4, Green accumulated 6,398,089 Class A shares. The transactions totaled approximately $148.1 million.

OpenAI Partnership Talks Fuel Optimism

Market sentiment is also rising on reports from The Information. The outlet suggests OpenAI is in early talks with The Trade Desk.

The discussions center on using TTD’s programmatic platform to sell ads.

TTD Price Action: Trade Desk shares were trading 6.34% lower at $23.68 at the time of publication on Wednesday. The stock is near its 52-week low of $21.08, according to Benzinga Pro data.

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