Snap Inc. (NYSE:SNAP) Receives Average Recommendation of "Hold" from Brokerages

Shares of Snap Inc. (NYSE:SNAP - Get Free Report) have earned an average recommendation of "Hold" from the twenty-six research firms that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have assigned a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. The average 1-year target price among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $14.82.

SNAP has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on shares of Snap from $13.00 to $16.00 and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a report on Friday, April 26th. Raymond James restated an "outperform" rating and issued a $16.00 price objective (up from $15.00) on shares of Snap in a report on Friday, April 26th. TD Cowen upped their target price on Snap from $11.00 to $14.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a report on Friday, April 26th. HSBC upgraded Snap from a "reduce" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, April 26th. Finally, Barclays upped their price target on Snap from $15.00 to $17.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, April 26th.

Snap Price Performance

Snap stock traded up $0.09 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $16.84. 24,189,601 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 27,922,404. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.55, a quick ratio of 3.76 and a current ratio of 3.76. Snap has a 52 week low of $8.28 and a 52 week high of $17.90. The firm has a market cap of $27.64 billion, a PE ratio of -20.79 and a beta of 1.03. The company's fifty day moving average is $15.90 and its 200-day moving average is $14.15.

Snap (NYSE:SNAP - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 25th. The company reported ($0.14) earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.24) by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $1.19 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.12 billion. Snap had a negative return on equity of 46.62% and a negative net margin of 26.99%. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Snap will post -0.43 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Snap

In other news, CTO Robert C. Murphy sold 1,000,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $14.27, for a total transaction of $14,270,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief technology officer now owns 59,894,865 shares in the company, valued at $854,699,723.55. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other Snap news, CTO Robert C. Murphy sold 1,000,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $14.27, for a total transaction of $14,270,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief technology officer now owns 59,894,865 shares in the company, valued at approximately $854,699,723.55. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Evan Spiegel sold 150,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $14.35, for a total transaction of $2,152,500.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 3,477,844 shares in the company, valued at approximately $49,907,061.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 1,372,583 shares of company stock valued at $19,934,275 in the last ninety days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Snap by 12.0% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 40,341 shares of the company's stock valued at $683,000 after acquiring an additional 4,307 shares during the last quarter. Carmignac Gestion purchased a new stake in shares of Snap in the 4th quarter valued at $110,103,000. TCW Group Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Snap in the 4th quarter valued at $275,000. V Square Quantitative Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Snap by 72.7% in the 4th quarter. V Square Quantitative Management LLC now owns 11,119 shares of the company's stock valued at $188,000 after acquiring an additional 4,679 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Snap by 1.5% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 91,814,471 shares of the company's stock valued at $818,067,000 after acquiring an additional 1,352,655 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 47.52% of the company's stock.

Snap Company Profile

Snap Inc operates as a technology company in North America, Europe, and internationally. The company offers Snapchat, a visual messaging application with various tabs, such as camera, visual messaging, snap map, stories, and spotlight that enable people to communicate visually through short videos and images.