Snap (NYSE:SNAP) Shares Up 6.3% – Should You Buy?

Snap Inc. (NYSE:SNAP)’s stock price shot up 6.3% during trading on Friday . The stock traded as high as $13.28 and last traded at $12.80. 17,214,273 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 21% from the average session volume of 21,841,229 shares. The stock had previously closed at $12.04.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have issued reports on SNAP. Benchmark reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Snap in a report on Friday, October 25th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on Snap from $15.00 to $14.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, October 4th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price target on shares of Snap from $13.00 to $11.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, October 14th. Guggenheim restated a “buy” rating and set a $12.11 price objective on shares of Snap in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Finally, Roth Mkm reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $14.00 target price on shares of Snap in a research report on Wednesday, September 18th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty-two have given a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $37.10.

Snap Stock Up 6.1 %

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.63, a current ratio of 4.04 and a quick ratio of 4.04. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $11.59 and its 200 day moving average price is $11.56. The firm has a market capitalization of $21.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -22.03 and a beta of 0.98.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Snap news, CAO Rebecca Morrow sold 32,000 shares of Snap stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $12.42, for a total value of $397,440.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 433,064 shares in the company, valued at $5,378,654.88. The trade was a 6.88 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CTO Robert C. Murphy sold 1,000,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $12.50, for a total transaction of $12,500,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief technology officer now directly owns 57,210,989 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $715,137,362.50. This represents a 1.72 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 1,451,618 shares of company stock worth $17,560,157. 22.68% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Snap

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Everence Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Snap during the fourth quarter worth about $437,000. Sanctuary Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Snap by 37.3% during the 3rd quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 82,143 shares of the company’s stock worth $938,000 after purchasing an additional 22,328 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in Snap by 5.2% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 11,697,455 shares of the company’s stock worth $124,742,000 after purchasing an additional 575,324 shares in the last quarter. Groupama Asset Managment purchased a new position in Snap in the third quarter valued at approximately $13,032,000. Finally, MML Investors Services LLC grew its stake in Snap by 6.8% during the third quarter. MML Investors Services LLC now owns 25,245 shares of the company’s stock worth $270,000 after buying an additional 1,614 shares during the period. 47.52% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.