Ziff Davis, Inc. (ZD) Stock Price & How to Invest

Ziff Davis descends from j2 Global, which separated its cloud fax business as Consensus Cloud Solutions in October 2021 and renamed the remainder after the Ziff Davis publishing brand it had acquired. Four reportable segments remain after the June 2026 divestiture: Technology and Shopping (PCMag, RetailMeNot), Gaming and Entertainment (IGN, Humble Bundle), Health and Wellness (Everyday Health, Lose It!), and Cybersecurity and Martech (VIPRE, Campaigner, Moz). Mashable and the other consumer titles sit inside the media segments. Revenue arrives in three shapes: display and performance advertising sold against site traffic, subscriptions to software and consumer services, and licensing. In Q2 2026 the four segments produced ~$286.7 million between them, down ~2.7% from a year earlier, with only Gaming and Entertainment and Cybersecurity and Martech growing.

The defining event of 2026 was selling the Connectivity division (Ookla, Speedtest, Ekahau, Downdetector, RootMetrics) to Accenture, announced in March and closed on June 17 for total proceeds of ~$1,216.1 million, a price management put at ~14.5 times that unit's trailing adjusted EBITDA less capital expenditures. Cash went from ~$574 million at the end of 2025 to ~$1.61 billion at June 30 against ~$868 million of total debt, leaving ZD in a net cash position for the first time in years. Management repurchased 4.5 million shares in the first seven months of the year, cutting the count by nearly 11%, and has said a review of further value-creating options, including the possible sale of one or more business lines, is under way. Against that, Q2 GAAP results showed an operating loss of ~$44.7 million after a ~$54.8 million goodwill impairment, and the company has told investors that AI Overviews now appear on ~50% of Google queries relevant to its properties, up from ~36%.

The bear case starts with AI search referral traffic. Google's AI Overviews now appear on roughly half of the queries relevant to Ziff Davis properties, up from roughly a third, and answers rendered on the results page remove the click that a publisher monetizes; assistants such as ChatGPT and Perplexity do the same thing without a results page at all. Advertising and performance marketing, still the majority of revenue at ~$182 million in Q2, fell ~6.0% year over year, and management has guided Q3 revenue to a low to mid single digit year over year decline, so the erosion is showing up in reported results rather than in theory. Goodwill from years of acquisitions remains large at ~$1.29 billion, and the ~$54.8 million impairment taken in Q2 is a reminder that some of those purchases have not held their value. Two smaller risks compound the first: a stated willingness to sell business lines makes the future revenue base hard to forecast, and law firms including Levi and Korsinsky and the Gross Law Firm publicised investigations in March 2026 over 2025 guidance that preceded a Q4 revenue decline, though no securities class action complaint appears in the company's Q2 2026 legal proceedings disclosure.

5 analysts publish price targets on ZD, averaging $64.40 against a $55.82 price as of August 2026, or +15.4%. The published targets run from $59.00 to $75.00, a narrow spread, and the ratings split 3 buy, 2 hold, 0 sell. Over the last six months there have been 11 raises and 0 cuts among the published actions. A price target is what an analyst published on a date, not a prediction, and sell-side ratings skew positive across the whole market.

Read the full ZD forecast and price target for the target table, the recent rating actions by firm, and how the consensus has shifted.

We give no verdict on Ziff Davis, Inc.. Both cases are real, which is why the question is contested at all, so here is the strongest version of each.

The case for buying. Redeploying the Connectivity proceeds. Ziff Davis is sitting on ~$1.61 billion of cash against ~$868 million of debt, an unusual position for a company with a ~$1.91 billion market value. The most optimistic published target, $75.00, assumes this works close to its best case.

The case against. The bear case starts with AI search referral traffic. The most pessimistic target, $59.00, is roughly what ZD is worth if this bites instead.

Read the full bull and bear case on ZD, including what would have to change to break either one. Walnut is not an investment adviser.

A simple financial snapshot. These are approximations and refresh quarterly; for current figures see Ziff Davis, Inc.'s investor relations page or your broker.

• Revenue (Q2 2026, continuing operations): ~$286.7M, down ~2.7% year over year
• Revenue (TTM, as reported): ~$1.44B, which still includes the Connectivity division divested in June 2026
• Adjusted EBITDA (Q2 2026): ~$76.8M, a ~26.8% margin, versus ~$79.8M a year earlier
• Adjusted diluted EPS (Q2 2026): ~$1.03, up ~13.2%, against a GAAP loss from continuing operations of ~$1.43 after a ~$54.8M goodwill impairment
• Cash and debt (June 30, 2026): ~$1.61B cash against ~$868M of total debt, roughly $740M net cash
• Market value and implied multiple: ~$1.91B market cap at ~$55.82, so an enterprise value near ~$1.2B, roughly 4x annualised adjusted EBITDA

The gap between the market value and the cash pile is what makes ZD screen unusually cheap: back out net cash and the four operating segments are priced at something close to four times their current adjusted EBITDA run rate. Bears would answer that a mid single digit revenue decline compounds, and that a four times multiple on a shrinking base is not the bargain it looks like on a screen. Note also that the trailing revenue figure most data providers still show blends in Connectivity, so year-ahead comparisons will look worse than the underlying trend until the divested period rolls off.

Other names that sit close to ZD: same theme, named as a direct competitor, or held beside it in the same funds. Each entry says which. Worth a look if you are thinking about diversification within a thesis rather than concentration on one ticker.

There are three common ways to get ZD exposure. Buy shares (or fractional shares) directly at any major broker. Hold an ETF that includes it, which spreads the position across many companies. Or build it into a focused thematic portfolio, so ZD sits alongside other stocks that express the same thesis.

Walnut takes the portfolio route. Describe a thesis where ZD fits (for example “AI infrastructure” or “dividend-growth large-caps”) and the AI proposes 5 to 6 constituents with target weights. You review the plan and fund it through your own broker when you're ready.

New to this? Start with how to invest in stocks, see how to analyze a stock with AI, or compare the best AI stock analyzers.

ZD is a cash-rich, cheaply valued publisher whose central question is whether buybacks and redeployment can outrun the erosion of search-referred audience.

Whether ZD is worth buying today depends more on your time horizon and what you already hold than on any single call. We walk through valuation, what would have to go right, and the risks in is ZD a buy or a sell?, and where the stock could go from here in the ZD stock forecast.

For income investors, whether ZD pays a dividend and how the payout looks is covered in does ZD pay a dividend? And to weigh ZD against a peer, read the full side-by-side comparisons: ZD vs KVYO and ZD vs INTU.