Snap Inc. (NYSE:SNAP) Stock Now Rated “Hold” by Wall Street Brokerages

Shares of Snap Inc. (NYSE:SNAP) have received an average rating of “Hold” from the thirty-six research firms that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, twenty-four have assigned a hold recommendation, nine have issued a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year target price among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $7.65.

A number of analysts recently issued reports on the company. Royal Bank Of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and set a $8.00 price objective on shares of Snap in a research report on Thursday, September 17th. Barclays boosted their price target on Snap from $15.00 to $16.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 4th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of Snap from $5.00 to $6.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 4th. DA Davidson boosted their target price on shares of Snap from $5.00 to $5.25 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 4th. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded shares of Snap from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 1st.

Snap Stock Performance

Shares of SNAP opened at $5.42 on Friday. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $5.26 and its 200 day moving average price is $5.20. Snap has a 52 week low of $3.81 and a 52 week high of $9.13. The company has a market capitalization of $9.16 billion, a PE ratio of -30.08 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.75, a quick ratio of 2.94 and a current ratio of 2.94.

Snap (NYSE:SNAP) last released its earnings results on Monday, August 3rd. The company reported ($0.10) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.12) by $0.02. Snap had a negative net margin of 4.90% and a negative return on equity of 14.61%. The company had revenue of $1.60 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.54 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned ($0.16) EPS. The company’s revenue was up 18.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts expect that Snap will post -0.02 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Snap

In other Snap news, CTO Robert Murphy sold 2,000,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $5.55, for a total transaction of $11,100,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief technology officer directly owned 41,809,791 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $232,044,340.05. This represents a 4.57% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Ajit Mohan sold 6,797 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $5.82, for a total value of $39,558.54. Following the transaction, the insider owned 4,965,300 shares in the company, valued at approximately $28,898,046. This trade represents a 0.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Insiders sold a total of 2,445,926 shares of company stock valued at $13,426,930 in the last three months. 22.68% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Snap by 104.1% in the 2nd quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 26,588 shares of the company’s stock worth $118,000 after purchasing an additional 13,558 shares during the last quarter. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC acquired a new position in Snap during the second quarter valued at approximately $93,000. NewEdge Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Snap by 37.8% during the second quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 66,568 shares of the company’s stock valued at $296,000 after purchasing an additional 18,265 shares during the last quarter. Arizona State Retirement System grew its holdings in Snap by 4.9% during the second quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 306,826 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,362,000 after purchasing an additional 14,246 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Waverly Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Snap in the second quarter valued at approximately $47,000. 47.52% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Snap Company Profile

Snap Inc is a technology and social media company best known for Snapchat, a visual messaging and social networking application. Snapchat enables users to communicate through photos, videos, text messages and augmented reality experiences, including Lenses and filters. The platform also offers Stories, Spotlight for short-form video, Snap Map and other tools for discovering and sharing content.

Snap generates most of its business through digital advertising, including advertising displayed across Snapchat’s content and communication features.