I looked around to see if there was any bad news about the agency that might have spooked the stock market, but didn't find anything.

The stock closed at $54.91. The DOW and Nasdaq were only down a fraction (about 0.50%); tech stocks were mixed but were +/- 1%; Adobe's stock was down 6.35% but I'm guessing that was about its Figma acquisition running into regulatory problems, not something related to their agency.

I looked at LinkedIn to see if Paul Hennessey had moved on, but apparently not . Their Q1 numbers were decent and they upped their dividend to 27�.

Does anyone have any idea why investors are unhappy?

Maybe they aren't seeing a bright future for microstock sites because of the AI image development?

SSTK close today was $51.84, down another $3.07 (-5.59%) on yesterday

The only new information I found was this article about "...an unusually large $440.00K block of Put contracts in Shutterstock (SSTK) was bought, with a strike price of $47.50 / share, expiring in 261 day(s) (on January 19, 2024)". Timing was around midday yesterday (May 3)

https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/unusual-put-option-trade-in-shutterstock-sstk-worth-%24440.00k

I'm not well versed in these financial gambles, but this article explains a put option - which I think means the person buying those is betting the stock will drop. As to why someone wants to play games with SSTK, I'm none the wiser...

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/putoption.asp

Maybe investors are privy to earnings data which is sinking faster than the RMS Lusitania.

Well the rise of AI could have investors worried. Adobe has other income, stock ist just a small part.

The Motley Fool article seems to share your view -

https://www.fool.com/investing/2023/05/05/why-uipath-shutterstock-and-duolingo-are-plummetin/

"Shares of UiPath (PATH), Shutterstock (SSTK), and Duolingo (DUOL) have seen big losses in this week's trading amid concerns that artificial intelligence (AI) will disrupt their businesses. "

"Shutterstock actually has a partnership with OpenAI and has been working to integrate AI-generated content into its platform. But the partnership with the AI pioneer clearly hasn't been enough to put investors at ease about potential risks of disruption. It looks as if AI-generated content will continue to improve and become more popular, and that poses a significant threat to Shutterstock as it currently exists. While the company could eventually become a bigger player in AI content generation, its current business model revolves primarily around stock images, music, and videos."

Market is still open, bit SSTK is down another $1.06 (-2.04%) at $50.78

Personally, I think the concerns over AI are overblown. AI has been around for some time but, has it really revolutionized anything? Not really. Does it have that potential? Maybe but, equally, it may just sit alongside traditional techniques. Good for some things not so good for others.

At the end of the day, will it be easier and cheaper for a customer to buy or generate an image from SS or will it be easier and cheaper to do it themselves? It's the age old business question (MBA 101) whether to make or buy.

Markets get jittery all the time and especially in the current climate. But that doesn't mean they are right. Of course, I don't own any shares in SS and, should the business fail, it would be a very minor hit to my income stream. So it's easy for me to be sanguine.

We can only hope and pray that shitterstock goes bust and takes Oringers fortune with it.

This would be hilarious 

No, i have not till now.
But i think Adobe has enough power to get it work.

Personally, I think the concerns over AI are overblown. AI has been around for some time but, has it really revolutionized anything? Not really. Does it have that potential? Maybe but, equally, it may just sit alongside traditional techniques. Good for some things not so good for others. (...)

This sounds more or less like 2002 "digital will never replace film" 

Quote from: t�tar�t� on May 06, 2023, 01:56

...Because of Adobe Firefly i would invest in Adobe and not in Shutterstock.

Have you used the Firefly beta?

IMO it is unusable for most people for most purposes at the moment.

I actually found firefly better than midjourney & Dall-E but that could be because I only bought about $15 worth of credits on Dall-E which left me with concepts that needed a lot of illustration on my part to make them useable.

Because there was no time limit to my use of the Adobe firefly beta, I spent hours working on concepts. They still needed some hand finishing via a drawing tablet, but it was a lot less work that the others. Of course, like anything, the longer you practice something, the better you get at it.

I wish that I could use some of my final versions commercially and hope that when it's out of beta I can. Meanwhile, I've made some fun illustrations that delight my grandson. And I'm learning a new skill without spending a fortune.

I still prefer getting out with my camera. AI is a crapshoot. You can get close to what you want and then it changes and the final tweaks become impossible. I have more patience waiting for the right light when I"m shooting a landscape, or anticipating an image if I'm doing editorial work.

Seeing something appear when I type in a concept is amusing but even with tweaking the prompt  there is still so much randomness (and I'm a writer so words come easy). That lack of control is frustrating. Sure, I can't always control what happens in front of my lens, but I can control my response to it, and that's far more satisfying.

Shutterstock had a mini-rally earlier this week, but closed today at $52.63 (down $2.11 from Wed)

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/peri-sstk-better-value-stock-154003633.html

For some reason I can't fathom - other than the investor newsletter just has no clue about the businesses these companies are actually engaged in and how they work (who the customers are) - this article put Shutterstock and Perion in the same business category:

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/peri-sstk-better-value-stock-154003633.html

I looked at Perion's home page and it's full of buzzy fluff about capturing digital dollars, or fragmenting technology (slight misrepresentation on my part):

"Perion is focused on the future, and has built a tech-stack that drives our Capture & Convince business solutions. Our AI and machine learning can be applied to sourcing and optimizing traffic, transforming dumb funnels into smart consumer journeys."

I don't think they're in the same business at all, but at the end, the article about taking advantage of undervalued stocks recommends buying Perion's stock, not SSTK

"Both PERI and SSTK are impressive stocks with solid earnings outlooks, but based on these valuation figures, we feel that PERI is the superior value option right now."

Here's a more general article about what Perion does - I have no love for SSTK, but it must be frustrating to have investment advisers lump you in with the wrong bucket and then drag the stock down as a result. But them's the breaks when you decide to go public

https://seekingalpha.com/article/4584594-perion-network-still-very-discounted


https://www.perion.com/

Edited to add that the stock closed down a bit more Tuesday 16 May - $51.29, (down $1.67 from Monday).

Tomorrow afternoon SS is hosting a (streaming) Gen AI event "AI is the game changer of all game changers�something every brand and business in the industry can gain from. Don�t forget to book your seat so you can learn how to make it work for you." They're clearly hoping if they bang the AI drum enough it'll do them some good.

Separately I saw a marketing piece - misspelled drivel, IMO - that says there's huge growth ahead. Probably not all that well researched as they include (the now bankrupt) EyeEm in the list of "top companies"

https://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/news/a2z-market-research/stock-photos-and-videos-market-to-witness-huge-growth-by-2029-adobe-stock-shutterstock-fotosearch

"Stock Photos and Videos Market is growing at a +7% CAGR during the forecast period 2023-2030. The increasing interest of the individuals in this industry is that the major reason for the expansion of this market"

Edited May 26 to add that SSTK closed yesterday at $48.94, so there's clearly something bothering investors. Their "ex-dividend date" (last day to be qualified to receive the next stock dividend) is May 31 and typically that causes the stock price to go up a bit as people buy...

May 30 close, $47.22