Snap, Inc. (NYSE:$SNAP) investors had a rough week as the company’s shares fell below its $17 IPO price on Monday July 10 and has continued to stay below $17 throughout the week.
As Snap kept tumbling downwards, several analysts — even those who underwrote the stock when it made its first debut in a exchange four months ago — have been issuing cautious notes to investors. Over the past eight days, Snap’s stock have gone down a devastating 15%. The fall can be largely attributed to seasoned traders and investors on Wall Street doubting Snap’s abilities to perform for growth investors. Unfortunately, the downward movement of the stock confirms these doubts somewhat.
However, on Thursday, July 13, some sparks of hope arose as an analyst upgraded their stance on the stock. Scott Devitt, an analyst at financial firm Stifel (NYSE:$SF), upgraded Snap’s rating from hold to buy. While he also lowered his price target from $24 to $22, the number still represent some form of optimism for the stock as it is about 44% of upside based on Wednesday’s (July 12) close.
Snap’s stock has been in rough seas for the past couple of months. In fact, it has been falling a little after its March IPO as the hype of Snap going public wore down. Then, the company failed to meet Wall Street expectations in the first quarter earnings report. Concerns began spreading regarding Snap’s user growth and aggressive competitors like Facebook’s (NASDAQ:$FB) Instagram overtaking Snapchat as it released a feature similar to the iconic Snapchat Stories. The uncertainty that investors and traders held for Snap’s stock only continued to grow as lock-up expiration approaches. Analysts have taken to pointing out these near-term risks in recent weeks, but Devitt feels that these concerns are exaggerated. He noted that recently, downloading trends for the Snapchat app have been positive.
But not all analysts have the same optimistic views as Devitt — Samuel Kemp at Piper Jaffray (NYSE:$PJC) cut his price target on Snap from $20 to $16.50, citing concerns as Snap’s competitor Instagram gain success in user engagement. Despite this, Devitt’s message got through most investors as Snap opened a bit higher on July 13 morning.
Devitt’s upgrade — which came a day after Barclays’ (LON:$BARC) Ross Sandler’s neutral rating on Snap — suggest that an opportunity has been created due to concerns over pre-IPO investors divesting the stock after the lock-up expiration later in July. Although Devitt believes that it may be best to wait until next month to invest in Snap, he still remains optimistic on the social network’s short-term performances.
For now, investors will have to be patient and and wait for Snap to report its second-quarter results on August 10. Still, it gives Snap investors some hope to know that not all analysts have lost their optimism in the stock.
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