Bears take bite out of Snap stock
Tech giant Snap saw its shares dive to another record low tonight after a damning note from an influential analyst described the company’s performance as “embarrassing”.
The owner of the Snapchat messaging app was blasted by BTIG analyst Richard Greenfield, who urged investors to sell their shares in the firm.
Snap’s shares closed at $9.89 on Tuesday night, before plunging seven per cent to $9.20 at the close of trading yesterday.
BTIG cut its target price for the share to $5, saying: “We do not believe the pain is over; we see the stock being cut in half again over the coming year.”
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If the share price did hit $5 it would mark a precipitous fall from a peak of $27-a-share following Snap’s March 2017 initial public offering (IPO).
BTIG’s note said: “We find it embarrassing how far short Snapchat has fallen from levels we, and more importantly management, [were] confident in achieving at the time of their IPO.
“We are tired of Snapchat’s excuses for missing numbers and are no longer willing to give management ‘time’ to figure out monetisation.”
Jefferies analyst Brent Thill also disparaged Snap’s performance yesterday, but gave it a more generous target price of $11, still a drop from its previous $14 target.
He said Snap’s user figures were a worry, with both daily-active-user counts and time spent on the Snapchat app continuing to “trend negatively”.
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He also cited the resignation this week of Snap’s chief strategy officer Imran Khan as “troubling given how early on it is in the business transition”.
In January, Snap unveiled a redesign that was aimed at helping it monetise its service by including more adverts.
The redesign was widely panned by users with over 1m signing a survey calling for the changes to be rolled back.
Kardashian clan member Kylie Jenner tweeted in February that she no longer opened Snapchat following the changes, wiping $1.3bn (£1bn) from its value.
Rihanna also blasted Snap in March after it hosted an advert making light of ex-boyfriend Chris Brown's assault on the singer in 2009.
Snap apologised and removed the offending advert, but Rihanna responded saying: “Throw the whole app-oligy away.”
There are analysts who still believe in Snap’s future, despite its rocky 2018.
Wedbush Securities' Michael Pachter argued in a note on Tuesday that Snap’s current share price offered value to investors and Khan’s exit meant that new chief financial officer Tim Stone, an Amazon veteran, would have a more influential role to play in its future.