Snap (NYSE:SNAP) Coverage Initiated at B. Riley

Equities researchers at B. Riley assumed coverage on shares of Snap (NYSE:SNAP - Get Free Report) in a research report issued on Friday, MarketBeat.com reports. The brokerage set a "neutral" rating and a $11.00 price target on the stock. B. Riley's target price would indicate a potential upside of 9.78% from the company's previous close.

A number of other analysts have also weighed in on SNAP. Citigroup cut their price objective on Snap from $16.00 to $11.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, August 12th. Benchmark reaffirmed a "hold" rating on shares of Snap in a research report on Tuesday, August 6th. Hsbc Global Res downgraded Snap from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their target price on shares of Snap from $16.00 to $12.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, August 2nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Snap from an "underweight" rating to an "equal weight" rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $12.00 to $16.00 in a report on Tuesday, July 23rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty-four have given a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $13.76.

Snap Trading Down 0.5 %

NYSE SNAP traded down $0.05 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $10.02. The company had a trading volume of 9,760,878 shares, compared to its average volume of 27,400,889. The company has a current ratio of 3.98, a quick ratio of 3.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.74. The stock has a market capitalization of $16.63 billion, a P/E ratio of -12.42 and a beta of 1.00. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $10.70 and a 200 day moving average of $12.81. Snap has a 1-year low of $8.28 and a 1-year high of $17.90.

Snap (NYSE:SNAP - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The company reported ($0.13) EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.15) by $0.02. Snap had a negative net margin of 23.49% and a negative return on equity of 42.84%. The firm had revenue of $1.24 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.25 billion. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Snap will post -0.48 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Snap

In related news, CTO Robert C. Murphy sold 1,000,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $8.69, for a total value of $8,690,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief technology officer now owns 58,553,813 shares in the company, valued at $508,832,634.97. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Snap news, CTO Robert C. Murphy sold 1,000,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $8.69, for a total transaction of $8,690,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief technology officer now owns 58,553,813 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $508,832,634.97. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Evan Spiegel sold 150,000 shares of Snap stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $8.85, for a total value of $1,327,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 3,327,844 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $29,451,419.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 1,511,540 shares of company stock worth $13,569,906 over the last three months. 22.68% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Snap

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of SNAP. Marshall Wace LLP raised its holdings in Snap by 587.3% in the second quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 14,667,597 shares of the company's stock valued at $243,629,000 after buying an additional 12,533,653 shares during the period. SRS Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in Snap by 23.6% in the 4th quarter. SRS Investment Management LLC now owns 65,114,732 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,102,392,000 after purchasing an additional 12,452,415 shares in the last quarter. Carmignac Gestion purchased a new position in Snap in the fourth quarter valued at about $110,103,000. Contrarius Investment Management Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Snap during the 4th quarter valued at about $80,644,000. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Snap by 3.8% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 95,317,701 shares of the company's stock worth $1,613,729,000 after acquiring an additional 3,503,230 shares in the last quarter. 47.52% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Snap

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.