Coursera Stock Falls 26% After Results and Needham Price Target Cut

Coursera (NYSE: COUR) shares fell 25.5% on Friday, closing at $3.47 against a previous close of $4.66, as the stock traded on 4.9 times its normal volume. The S&P 500 ETF (SPY) fell 1.77% over the same session, so the decline was far larger than the broad market.

The company's results came in an 8-K filed Oct. 29 at 4:11 p.m. Eastern. The press release attached to it reported third-quarter revenue of $376.7 million, up 94% year over year but reflecting the inclusion of Udemy from May 11, 2026. On a normalized basis, revenue declined about 3%. The GAAP net loss widened to $25.6 million from $8.6 million a year earlier. The company narrowed its full-year 2026 revenue outlook to $1.229 billion to $1.237 billion.

Normalized revenue fell as Consumer slowed

The shareholder letter attached to the filing said pressure in one-time purchases and transactional offerings more than offset growth in Consumer subscriptions, and that leading funnel indicators softened. Consumer revenue rose 35% as reported but fell 9% on a normalized basis. Enterprise revenue rose 214% as reported and 2% normalized.

The company's fourth-quarter guidance calls for revenue of $358 million to $366 million, below the $376.7 million reported for the third quarter, and adjusted EBITDA of $55 million to $59 million.

Analyst cuts price target

Needham kept its Buy rating on Coursera but lowered its price target to $6.00 from $10.00 before the open on Friday.

Cost savings and Project Helix

The letter said integration actions now represent more than $150 million of annualized gross cost savings, with the $115 million run-rate net synergy target expected by year-end. It also previewed Project Helix, an AI-native skills platform targeted for broad Enterprise availability in the first half of 2027.

Coursera also said it had repurchased more than $215 million of stock under its $500 million authorization through Oct. 28.