SmartRent
Maker of smart-home hardware and software installed in apartment buildings across the US.
On the record
Checkpoint: Q2 2026 earnings, third straight quarter of positive adjusted EBITDA needed to show turnaround holds
The call
The installed hardware base is real and hard to rip out, but total revenue keeps shrinking and Yardi or RealPage could bundle a rival smart-home offering at any time.
SmartRent installs locks, thermostats, and other connected devices in about 911,000 apartments at large property owners. The company is hard to replace because ripping out physical hardware costs landlords money and hassle, but SmartRent itself is shrinking (down 13% last year) and losing cash ($60 million net loss), so that lock-in advantage is weakening. The real threat is that Yardi and RealPage, the big property-management software companies, could bundle their own smart-home devices and offer landlords everything in one package, which would be hard for SmartRent to fight. The company is betting it can become a higher-profit software business instead of a hardware company, but it has only shown two good quarters so far, so we do not yet know if that turnaround is real or temporary.
Why
01
AI pressure: None apparent. No AI lab or product targets multifamily smart-home automation directly; SmartRent's own AI use is internal cost cutting, not a threat to it. Could AI do the core job? Unlikely.
02
Bigger players: Yardi and RealPage. Both run the property-management software landlords already use and could bundle smart-home hardware in, no wall stops them from doing it. Could a giant copy it? Yes, easily.
03
What protects it. 911,000 already-installed hardware units and contracts with 15 of the top 20 multifamily operators make ripping out the system costly.
What would change this call
Yardi or RealPage announces or ships a bundled smart-home/IoT offering for multifamily operators. Would show the dormant incumbent threat is materializing against SmartRent's hardware moat.
Q2 2026 earnings (early August 2026) report on ARR growth rate and total revenue trend. Would show whether SaaS turnaround is durable or total revenue keeps shrinking.
Outcome or settlement of San Francisco Tenants Union privacy class action filed Dec 2025. Would show legal exposure materially hitting costs or customer trust.
Q2 2026 earnings (early August 2026) report on ARR growth rate and total revenue trend. Would show whether SaaS turnaround is durable or total revenue keeps shrinking.
Outcome or settlement of San Francisco Tenants Union privacy class action filed Dec 2025. Would show legal exposure materially hitting costs or customer trust.
Key numbers
- FY2025 revenue fell 12.9% to $152.3M
- Net loss widened 80% to $60.6M
- 911,244 units deployed, up 10% YoY
Named risks
- Total revenue declining despite SaaS growth, FY2025 down 12.9% to $152.3M.
- Yardi/RealPage face no structural barrier to bundling IoT into existing property software.
- Tenant-privacy class action filed December 4, 2025 over mandatory SmartHome surveillance claims.
- Stock trading near all-time lows ($0.90-$1.06 in 2026) versus $14.93 ATH, dilution/delisting concern.
- Turnaround relies on only two quarters of positive adjusted EBITDA, not yet sustained GAAP profit.
Rivals, as read in July 2026
| Rival | Direction | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Yardi | contesting | No bundled smart-home/IoT offering shipped as of mid-2026, but no structural barrier to entry |
| RealPage | contesting | Adjacent property-management incumbent, cited as dormant competitive threat as of mid-2026 |
| ButterflyMX | contesting | Claims installation in 20,000+ buildings (vendor-claimed, mid-2026) |
| Latch/DOOR | contesting | Claims installation in over one in ten new US apartments (vendor-claimed, mid-2026) |
| ADT Multifamily | contesting | Security-centric smart-apartment platform, formerly IOTAS, acquired by ADT in 2022 |
| PointCentral (Alarm.com) | contesting | Subsidiary of Alarm.com focused on rental-property automation as of mid-2026 |
Questions people ask
- Is SmartRent profitable in 2026?
- Not yet on a GAAP basis. FY2025 net loss was $60.56 million, up 80% year-over-year. Q1 2026 GAAP net loss narrowed to $4.4 million from $40.2 million, and SmartRent posted its second consecutive quarter of positive adjusted EBITDA as of March 31, 2026.
- Who owns SmartRent?
- SmartRent (NYSE: SMRT) is publicly traded with no controlling parent. It went public via a SPAC merger with Fifth Wall Acquisition Corp I, announced October 27, 2021 at a $2.2 billion pro-forma valuation. Institutional ownership was about 59.4% as of April 8, 2026, with insiders holding roughly 1.9%.
- Is SmartRent laying off employees?
- SmartRent's headcount has shrunk steadily: from a peak of 701 employees in 2022 to 418 in 2025, a roughly 40% reduction, according to Macrotrends data as of December 31, 2025, aligned with a multi-year cost-restructuring push.
- Who is SmartRent's biggest competitor?
- Direct rivals include ButterflyMX, Latch/DOOR, ADT Multifamily, and PointCentral (Alarm.com). A bigger long-term threat is property-management incumbents Yardi and RealPage, which face no structural barrier to bundling smart-home IoT into their existing platforms, though no such product had shipped as of mid-2026.
- Could AI replace SmartRent?
- Unlikely to replace its physical hardware base, 911,244 units deployed as of March 31, 2026, which requires install cycles AI cannot replicate. SmartRent itself is deploying AI internally via a July 6, 2026 Hexaware partnership for customer support and revenue operations, not being disrupted by external AI products.
- Is SmartRent stock a buy in 2026?
- Analyst consensus was rated 'Reduce' with a price target of $1.45 to $2.00 as of April 8, 2026. Shares traded near 52-week lows of $0.90 to $1.06 by mid-2026, far below the all-time high of $14.93, after falling over 26% following Q1 2026 earnings on May 6, 2026.
Timeline
- 2026-07-06Announced multi-year Hexaware partnership for AI-native transformation and Voice AI support
- 2026-05-06Q1 2026 results: revenue $38.7M down 6% YoY, second straight positive adj EBITDA quarter
- 2026-04-08Analyst consensus rated 'Reduce'; director bought 150,000 shares at $1.74
- 2026-03-04Q4/FY2025 results filed: Q4 revenue $36.5M up 3% YoY, ARR $61.6M
- 2025-12-31FY2025 total revenue $152.33M, down 12.9% YoY; net loss $60.56M, up 80%
- 2025-12-04San Francisco Tenants Union filed privacy class action over mandatory SmartHome systems
- 2024-10-03Launched next-generation Alloy Fusion Z-Wave hub with integrated thermostat
- 2021-10-27Announced SPAC merger with Fifth Wall Acquisition Corp I at $2.2B valuation
Revision history
23 July 2026
First assessed. Losing its protection. The text above is fixed as of this date and is not edited afterwards.
In the same band
Sources
- SmartRent (SMRT) Stock Price & Overview (2026-06-07)
- EX-99.1
- EX-99.1 (2026-05-06)
- SmartRent SMRT Q1 2026 Earnings Call Transcript (2026-05-06)
- growth-strategy (2025-07-27)
- SmartRent-CaseStudyv7
- Investing.com (2026-05-06)
- Internet of Things Stocks Q1 Recap (2026-07-10)
- SmartRent Number of Employees 2021-2026
- gurufocus.com (2026-07-23)
- SmartRent (NYSE:SMRT) Stock Price Down 3.7% (2026-04-08)
- SmartRent To Go Public in $2.2 Billion Merger with Fifth Wall Acquisition Corp. I