Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft Reiterates Buy Rating for Snap (NYSE:SNAP)

Snap (NYSE:SNAP)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reiterated by research analysts at Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft in a report released on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. They presently have a $14.00 price target on the stock. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft’s price objective suggests a potential upside of 45.38% from the company’s previous close.

Several other analysts have also commented on SNAP. Susquehanna cut their target price on shares of Snap from $15.00 to $12.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Hsbc Global Res lowered Snap from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Cantor Fitzgerald assumed coverage on Snap in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $8.00 target price on the stock. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Snap in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Roth Mkm reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $14.00 price target on shares of Snap in a research note on Wednesday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty-three have issued a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $13.87.

Snap Price Performance

Shares of SNAP stock traded up $0.21 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $9.63. 12,930,370 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 27,336,648. Snap has a twelve month low of $8.28 and a twelve month high of $17.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.74, a quick ratio of 3.98 and a current ratio of 3.98. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $10.97 and its 200-day simple moving average is $12.85. The firm has a market cap of $15.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -11.89 and a beta of 1.01.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, General Counsel Michael J. O’sullivan sold 18,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $9.30, for a total transaction of $167,400.00. Following the transaction, the general counsel now owns 456,662 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,246,956.60. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, CTO Robert C. Murphy sold 1,000,000 shares of Snap stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the chief technology officer now owns 58,553,813 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $508,832,634.97. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, General Counsel Michael J. O’sullivan sold 18,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $9.30, for a total transaction of $167,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now owns 456,662 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,246,956.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 1,352,420 shares of company stock valued at $12,091,682 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 22.68% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Marshall Wace LLP boosted its holdings in Snap by 587.3% during the second quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 14,667,597 shares of the company’s stock valued at $243,629,000 after acquiring an additional 12,533,653 shares during the period. SRS Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in Snap by 23.6% during 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 during the period. Carmignac Gestion acquired a new stake in Snap in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $110,103,000. Contrarius Investment Management Ltd acquired a new stake in Snap in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $80,644,000. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Snap by 3.8% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 95,317,701 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,613,729,000 after buying an additional 3,503,230 shares during the period. 47.52% of the stock is currently 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.