YOU Q2 2026 - Preliminary Earnings Alert

Event: Quartr Q2 2026 event Retrieved: 2026-08-05T11:35:00Z Comparison mode: maximal Scorecard contract: v1 Source status: release=available | financials=earnings release only | transcript=not available (call scheduled 2026-08-05 12:00Z)

Consensus scorecard

Reported results and guidance

Guidance issued with this release:

• Scorecard recap: revenue of $277.8m beat consensus by 3.0% and Class A GAAP diluted EPS of $0.49 beat the $0.3967 estimate by 23.5%.
• Full-year Free Cash Flow guidance was raised to at least $480 million from at least $465 million, which the company states is at least 39.9% year-over-year growth.
• Q3 2026 revenue guidance of $284–287m implies 24.6% year-over-year growth at the midpoint, and Q3 Total Bookings guidance of $311–316m implies 20.5% growth at the midpoint.
• The board declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.15 per share payable 24 September 2026 to Class A holders of record on 10 September 2026; approximately $22.2 million was returned to shareholders in the quarter through the regular dividend and distributions.
• eGates are live at 50 airports as of the release date and the company says it is on track for a network-wide rollout in 2026; CLEAR Concierge is now offered at 39 airports.

Key bullish aspects

• Revenue of $277.8m beat consensus by 3.0% and grew 26.6% year over year, and Class A GAAP diluted EPS of $0.49 beat by 23.5% and nearly doubled from $0.26.
• Operating income rose 94.9% to $83.0m and the operating margin expanded 10.5 percentage points to 29.9%, so profit grew roughly four times faster than revenue.
• Adjusted EBITDA rose 68.4% to $101.1m and adjusted EBITDA margin expanded 900 basis points to 36.4%, which the release notes exceeds the company's 35% long-term margin target.
• Total Bookings of $295.9m grew 32.8%, faster than the 26.6% revenue growth, and bookings lead revenue under the company's own definition.
• Quarterly free cash flow of $189.0m rose 60.3%, and six-month free cash flow of $374.5m is already 78% of the raised full-year guidance floor of $480m.
• Full-year free cash flow guidance was raised, not maintained, from at least $465m to at least $480m.
• Total CLEAR Members grew 30.0% to 43.5 million and Active CLEAR+ Members grew 15.2% to 8.3 million, with both metrics up sequentially as well.
• Deferred revenue rose 11.0% to $573.0m since year end, and marketable securities plus cash rose to $959.3m from $700.2m, so the growth is cash-funded.
• Cost of direct salaries and benefits was essentially flat (+0.6%) and research and development fell 2.5% while revenue grew 26.6%, evidencing operating leverage rather than spend-driven growth.
• The CLEAR+ airport footprint reached 62 airports with Northwest Arkansas and Indianapolis added in the quarter, alongside 280 retail TSA PreCheck enrollment locations.
• Six-month operating cash flow of $391.5m rose 76.9% while capital expenditures rose only $4.9m.

Key bearish aspects

• Active CLEAR+ Members, the paid subscriber base, grew 15.2% — half the 30.0% growth in Total CLEAR Members, which includes trials, single-use purchases and non-paid uses.
• Sequential Active CLEAR+ Member growth slowed to 162,000 adds in Q2 2026 from 551,000 in Q1 2026.
• Sequential Total Bookings growth was $4.2m ($291.7m to $295.9m), a materially smaller step than the $4.6m and larger sequential moves earlier in the series, so the bookings line is flattening quarter over quarter even as the year-over-year rate stays high.
• The Q3 2026 Total Bookings guide implies 20.5% growth at the midpoint against 32.8% delivered this quarter, and the Q3 revenue guide implies 24.6% against 26.6% delivered — both decelerating.
• Income tax expense nearly tripled to $19.0m and the effective tax rate rose to 20.8% from 14.5%, so part of the EPS growth faces a rising tax drag going forward.
• Net income attributable to non-controlling interests rose 69.2% to $22.3m, so 30.8% of consolidated net income does not accrue to Clear Secure, Inc. shareholders.
• Accrued liabilities rose 71.1% since year end to $404.7m, faster than any other balance-sheet line, and the release does not break down the increase.
• General and administrative expense rose 12.6% and sales and marketing rose 18.4%, both faster than the flat direct-salaries line.
• Six-month payments under tax receivable agreements rose to $14.3m from $0.3m a year earlier, a new recurring cash outflow to pre-IPO owners.
• Share repurchases essentially stopped: $1.2m in the first half against $126.3m a year earlier, so the capital return mix shifted away from buybacks while the diluted Class A share count rose 8.8%.
• Prior-period Active CLEAR+ Members were recast to remove lapsed accounts found during a 2025 billing system transformation, so the reported growth rate is measured against a restated base.

Key uncertainties

• The release gives no Q3 or full-year earnings, EBITDA or margin guidance — only revenue, bookings and free cash flow — so the profit path implied by the raised cash guidance cannot be derived here.
• No prior Q3 revenue or bookings guidance is restated in this release, so whether the Q3 ranges represent a raise, a cut or a first issuance cannot be determined from this document.
• The FY 2026 free cash flow guide is a floor ("at least $480 million"), not a range, and the release does not state the assumptions behind the $15m increase.
• Total Bookings includes accrued billings to partners alongside CLEAR+ subscriber sales, and the release does not split the two, so the source of the 32.8% growth is not visible.
• The release states pricing actions are a forward-looking factor but does not quantify any price increase or its contribution to the quarter's 26.6% revenue growth.
• CLEAR1 momentum is described as "continued strong momentum across core verticals" with no revenue, customer count or growth rate attached.
• eGates are stated as live at 50 airports "as of today" with a network-wide rollout on track for 2026, but no capital cost, revenue contribution or completion date is disclosed.
• The 71.1% increase in accrued liabilities to $404.7m is the single largest driver of the $152.0m six-month "accrued and other long term liabilities" operating cash inflow, and neither is explained in the release.
• Other assets of $326.8m and other long-term liabilities of $351.3m are each roughly 20% of the balance sheet and are not broken out.
• The quarterly dividend was held at $0.15 per share; the release does not indicate whether the special dividend paid earlier in 2026 will recur.
• Adjusted EBITDA excludes $11.1m of equity-based compensation in the quarter, up 7.7% year over year, and the release does not present a share-count impact for it.
• No transcript is available yet, so management's account of the CLEAR+ subscriber slowdown and the decelerating bookings guide cannot be assessed for this stage.

Market context

• API Ninjas snapshot: YOU $55.73 on NYSE, volume 1,549,216, retrieved 2026-08-05T11:40:53Z. The release was published on the morning of 2026-08-05 before the U.S. open and the conference call is scheduled for 8:00 a.m. Eastern. This is a single quote of unstated session basis, not a measured reaction to the release.

Source limitations

• Every actual above comes from the Quartr Q2 2026 earnings release document. Quartr standardized financials for this event are not yet populated.
• API Ninjas supplied no actual or difference fields for this event, so each beat/miss is calculated locally as Quartr actual minus API Ninjas estimate. The API row carried no fiscal year or quarter, so the exact ticker-and-event-date match path was used.
• The scorecard uses Class A GAAP diluted EPS of $0.49. The release presents no adjusted or non-GAAP per-share measure; Class B diluted EPS is identical at $0.49 and basic Class A EPS is $0.50.
• Total Bookings is a non-GAAP booking measure and is excluded from the revenue scorecard row by policy; it is shown in the KPI table above.
• Year-over-year, sequential and margin changes not printed in the release are calculated from the release's own columns.
• Prior-quarter guidance is not restated in this release, so the guidance table marks the Q3 revenue and bookings prior-guide cells as not stated.
• The condensed consolidated financial statements in this release are unaudited.
• No transcript exists for this event yet; the call is scheduled for 2026-08-05 12:00Z. A separate post-call update will cover it.

Source links

• Quartr Q2 2026 earnings release
• Quartr release second quarter highlights and guidance page
• Quartr release key performance indicators page
• Quartr release condensed consolidated balance sheets page
• Quartr release condensed consolidated statements of operations page
• Quartr release condensed consolidated statements of cash flows page
• Quartr release non-GAAP reconciliations page