On Monday, investment and banking institution, JPMorgan (NYSE:$JPM), cut its 2017 share price target for Snap Inc. (NYSE:$SNAP), from $20 to $18. The cut sent the company’s shares to lower by more than 2%. Despite the cut, JPMorgan has kept its neutral stance in regards to the parent company of the highly popular social media platform Snapchat.
JPMorgan noted that, while audience engagement has continuously seen strong numbers, it held some concerns for the company; mainly Snap’s ability to incorporate advertisement to its platform. The financial institution also showed fear for competition from other social media platforms such as Facebook (NASDAQ:$FB), as well as concern over Snapchat’s lack of profit. Additionally, Snapchat is less assertive when it comes to adding users.
While Snapchat has been a live social media platform for quite a while now, its parent company’s first earnings report was released just last month. To the disappointment of many, it failed to meet Wall Street’s revenue estimates despite an increased revenue from $38.8 million to $150 million. Snap also reported a loss of $2.31 a share, making its stock fall way down — barely above its $17 IPO price. Despite the fall, however, the stock did come back up. On Monday, June 5th, Snap’s stock was trading at $20.21.
When it comes to future tech products from Snap, JPMorgan has lowered its expectations. The financial giant revised the expected unit sales of Spectacles, Snapchat’s smart sunglasses, down to 429,000 in 2017 ($56 million in revenue) from its initial expected unit sale of 915,000 ($119 million in revenue).
With Snap’s expiring share lockup coming up on July 29th, its stock could become unpredictable as 70 to 80% of Snap shares open up for sale, JPMorgan noted.
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