Snap’s falling stock price continues after another challenging quarter.
Shares of the social media platform plunged 25% in premarket trading on Friday as third-quarter selling marked the fifth straight quarterly slowdown. Gains were also lackluster as Snap continued to blame a slowdown in advertising and Apple privacy changes for the execution failures.
Here’s a snapshot of Snap’s dismal numbers:
net sales: $1.13 billion versus an estimate of $1.14 billion
Daily active users: 363 million vs. 358 million estimate
Average income per user: $3.11 vs. $3.17 estimate
Adjusted earnings per share: $0.08 versus an estimated loss of $0.02
Guidance: “Sluggish” sales growth in the fourth quarter
The company warned that sales trends would deteriorate in the fourth quarter.
Snap shares were the top performers on Yahoo Finance’s “Trending Ticker” page through early morning.
EvercoreISI analyst Mark Mahaney said Snap’s Q3 results surprised her negatively. “We had assumed that the August improvement announced by Snap in early September would hold for the quarter. Instead, Snap’s revenue trends were very volatile in July at 0% year-over-year, mid-teens year-over-year growth in August, and low single-digit year-on-year percentage growth in September … even as the comps increased due to the changes in the Easing platform policies that started early Q3:21,” he said.
“And we think it’s likely that the recent major personnel changes at SNAP — the loss of key advertising executives to Netflix — have exacerbated headwinds,” Mahaney added.
POLAND – 2022/09/02: In this photo illustration a Snapchat logo displayed on a smartphone. (Photo illustration by Mateusz Slodkowski/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Analysts in the spotlight
Jefferies analyst Brent Thill sees three issues with the stock. After the disastrous third quarter, he maintains his buy rating on Snap. But the longtime tech analyst sees three issues ahead that may not yet be priced into Snap’s heavily discounted share price:
“The Q4 revision forecast points to a significant slowdown in growth. While Snap’s revenue growth on a quarter-to-date basis has accelerated to +9% year over year, management still forecasts flat year-over-year growth for the fourth quarter. Weakness in brand advertising appears to be the main reason behind the sharp slowdown, but we think there may also be embedded conservatism. In our view, Q1’23 could be the nadir for sales growth, with a gradual acceleration into 2023 as the slowdown slows Compare.
It’s difficult to analyze how many of Snap’s problems are temporary. The weaker macro background is partly to blame for the weak results, but we wonder how much is down to iOS’ privacy issues and competitive threats. Given the potential long-term impact on the platform, we consider competitive threats to be the most worrying.
A 20% downsizing and exit of senior executives could cause further disruption. We’re concerned that Snap’s reorganization could result in advertisers slowing or even pausing their spending. With Snap’s headcount growing more than 30% year over year for four straight quarters, we wonder if the company can deliver on its ambitious growth goals with a 20% smaller workforce.”
The story goes on
In numbers: Snap’s share price
all-time high: $83.11 (September 24, 2021)
YTD performance: -83%
1 year performance: -89%
IPO Price (March 2017): $17
Price after the first trading day (March 2017): $24.50
Brian Sozzi is a freelance writer and anchor at Yahoo Finance. Follow Sozzi on Twitter @BrianSozzi and on LinkedIn.
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