Snap Soars After Q4 Results Point to Turnaround Progress
*By Chloe Aiello*
Shares of embattled social media company Snap soared more than 16 percent in extended trading on Tuesday, after the company beat Wall Street's expectations for its fourth-quarter financial results and reported users stayed relatively stable from a year ago.
Wedbush's Dan Ives said the results showed signs of progress.
"With a lot of these turnaround stories, it's not just one quarter ー you need a few quarters to really see these turnarounds take place, but no doubt it looks like a step in the right direction," Ives said.
Snap ($SNAP), which is best known for its application Snapchat, reported a loss of $0.04 per share on revenue of $390 million, beating Wall Street’s estimates of a $0.07 loss per share on $377.52 million in revenue, according to Thomson Reuters.
“We are substantially closer to achieving profitability, as we have maintained a relatively flat cost structure across the past five quarters while growing full-year revenue 43 percent year-over-year,” Snap CEO Evan Spiegel said in a statement.
In the ever-important category of daily active users, which measures audience engagement, Snap reported 186 million ー the same number as in the third quarter, and only slightly less than the 187 million it reported this time last year. Average revenue per user came in at $2.09 vs. $1.53 last year.
Snap also said 30 percent more users are using its Stories and Shows features daily.
Bruised by competition from Facebook’s ($FB) Instagram, and a virtual rotating door of executives, Snap’s stock is down close to 50 percent from last year.
Much like all the upheaval shaking the world, the huge swings rocking Wall Street may feel far from normal. But, for investing at least, this is normal.
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