Seek Ltd (ASX: SEK) shares are down 3.08% in afternoon trade on Wednesday. At the time of writing, the shares are trading at $16.03 each.
Today's decline means the shares have now plummeted 33.33% year to date and are down 34.92% compared to this time last year.
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What has caused the share price crash in 2026?
Seek shares slowly declined through January, but significantly picked up pace in late January to early February, when broad tech-sector weakness and softer hiring trends raised investor concerns.
Overall, there is evidence that job ad volumes have begun stabilising in early 2026, but activity remains below peak levels. As a business that centres on online employment advertising, there is concern that lower ad volumes could translate into slower revenue growth or shrinking profits for Seek.
Did Seek's latest financial results inject any confidence back into investors?
The company posted its half-year results for the period ending 31st December 2025 ahead of the market open yesterday. It reported a 21% increase in sales revenue, a 12% increase in net revenue, and a 19% increase in EBITDA.
But the company also reported a statutory loss of $178 million due to a $356 million impairment related to Zhaopin. Yield growth of 17% across ANZ and Asia more than offset softer job ad volumes, reflecting the impact of AI-enabled product upgrades and pricing initiatives.
Management also upgraded its FY26 guidance, now expecting net revenue of $1.19 billion to $1.23 billion and EBITDA of $530 million to $550 million.
The double-digit growth didn't do anything to investor confidence, though, and the shares closed 2.6% lower for the day. While the company posted impressive revenue and profit growth, investors were likely deterred by the level of statutory losses.
What now? Are Seek shares a buy, sell, or hold for 2026?
The good news is that analysts are still bullish that we'll see some upside from Seek shares throughout the remainder of the year.
TradingView data shows that analysts have a consensus buy rating on the stock, with all 15 analysts holding a buy or strong buy rating on Seek shares.
The average target price is $27.24 a piece, which implies a potential 70.86% upside at the time of writing. But some think the shares could climb a whopping 103.76% to $32.50 over the next 12 months.
