Snap Inc. (SNAP) – Get report The shares rose on Tuesday after Goldman Sachs analysts raised their target price at the messaging app maker to the highest value on Wall Street.
Goldman analyst Heath Terry maintained his stock buy rating in place, but raised his price target by $ 23 to $ 70 a share, the highest on Wall Street, citing “a series of technological innovations and partnerships of products “that could accelerate revenue growth beyond Street forecasts.
Snap itself refused to provide revenue guidance for the current quarter when it published third quarter earnings hitting the streets on October 20, due to the broader pandemic uncertainty, but noted that “47% year-on-year revenue growth at 50% is achievable “if holiday season advertising follows previous trends.
“Snap’s Spotlight product, new advertising campaign goals and bid types, and the partnership with Unity, especially the inclusion of Unity ads in the Snap Audience Network (SAN), have the potential to further drive engagement growth, as well as providing valuable scale to advertisers, “Terry said.
“In addition, our recent ad checks, as well as third-party data, suggest superior performance compared to the company’s initial 4Q orientation, an acceleration that we believe to be sustainable beyond the current quarter.”
Snap’s shares were 11.2% higher at the start of Tuesday’s trading session to change hands at $ 53.70 each, a move that would increase the six-month stock gain to about 130%. The snap traded at an all-time high of $ 54.71 each on December 17th.
Snap shares were first traded on Nasdaq on March 2, 2017 at $ 25 per share after the IPO was launched at $ 17 each. The stock then dropped to less than $ 5 in December, amid unequal attempts by co-founder and CEO Evan Spiegel to simultaneously increase the appeal of the subscription messaging app to older users, while maintaining its zeitgeist among endorsers of celebrities.
Since 2019, however, the stock has been a nonstop run that has added nearly $ 70 billion in value to the Santa Monica, California-based technology group as it has added more users and attracted more advertisers to its Snapchat platform, a extremely influential social network media tool for teen and young users.
Snap’s third-quarter revenue grew 52% over last year, partly thanks to the boycott of Facebook in July (FB) – Get report by major advertisers, with daily active users growing 18% over the same period last year, to 249 million.
On an adjusted basis, the group also achieved a profit of one cent per share in the third quarter, compared to a loss of 4 cents per share last year and the Street consensus forecast of a loss of 5 cents per share.