Snap (NYSE:SNAP) Trading 6% Higher – Here’s What Happened

Snap Inc. (NYSE:SNAP) shares traded up 6% during trading on Friday . The company traded as high as $12.08 and last traded at $11.92. 3,217,824 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 65% from the average session volume of 9,269,524 shares. The stock had previously closed at $11.24.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have weighed in on SNAP shares. JMP Securities reiterated a “market outperform” rating and set a $16.00 price target on shares of Snap in a research note on Friday. Roth Mkm reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $14.00 price target on shares of Snap in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. Bank of America raised their price target on shares of Snap from $13.00 to $14.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Benchmark reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Snap in a report on Friday, October 25th. Finally, Piper Sandler reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $13.00 target price (up previously from $12.00) on shares of Snap in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty-two have given a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Snap has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $37.10.

Snap Stock Performance

The company has a current ratio of 4.04, a quick ratio of 4.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.63. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $11.54 and its 200 day simple moving average is $11.65. The company has a market cap of $20.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -20.64 and a beta of 0.97.

Snap (NYSE:SNAP) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The company reported $0.08 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.05 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $1.37 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.36 billion. Snap had a negative return on equity of 35.60% and a negative net margin of 18.49%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned ($0.21) earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that Snap Inc. will post -0.4 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO Rebecca Morrow sold 2,812 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $11.44, for a total value of $32,169.28. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 430,252 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,922,082.88. The trade was a 0.65 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CTO Robert C. Murphy sold 1,000,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $12.50, for a total transaction of $12,500,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief technology officer now owns 57,210,989 shares in the company, valued at approximately $715,137,362.50. This represents a 1.72 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 1,451,618 shares of company stock valued at $17,560,157 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 22.68% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Snap

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in SNAP. CIBC Asset Management Inc raised its holdings in shares of Snap by 41.1% in the 2nd quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 45,322 shares of the company’s stock valued at $753,000 after buying an additional 13,208 shares during the period. TD Asset Management Inc lifted its position in shares of Snap by 2.1% during the second quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 167,755 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,786,000 after purchasing an additional 3,376 shares in the last quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Snap in the second quarter valued at approximately $693,000. Caprock Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Snap in the second quarter valued at approximately $1,036,000. Finally, PFG Investments LLC increased its stake in Snap by 62.9% during the 2nd quarter. PFG Investments LLC now owns 27,321 shares of the company’s stock worth $454,000 after buying an additional 10,545 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 47.52% of the company’s stock.

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.