In this screengrab, CEO of Snap Inc. Evan Spiegel takes the stage at the virtual Snap Partner Summit 2021 on May 20, 2021 in Los Angeles.
Snap Partner Summit 2021 – Snap Inc | Getty Images
Shares of Snap fell 35% Friday morning, a day after the company reported disappointing second-quarter results.
Snap missed Wall Street expectations on the top and bottom lines and said it plans to slow hiring. The company attributed its results to a challenging economy, slowing demand for its online ad platform, Apple’s 2021 iOS update and competition from companies like TikTok.
“We are not satisfied with the results we are delivering, regardless of the current headwinds,” the company said.
Shares of Snap are down 77% year-to-date. And Wall Street isn’t letting up. It was hit with a slew of analyst downgrades following the latest earnings report.
Goldman Sachs analysts said Snap’s report was “broadly negative” and downgraded their rating from buy to neutral.
“While open questions will remain on how idiosyncratic this dynamic is (until Alphabet and Meta report earnings next week), our own industry checks over the past two months were muted but more optimistic than this earnings report,” they said.
Analysts from JPMorgan also downgraded shares of Snap and said that, while the company did not call out TikTok specifically, they believe TikTok’s rapid monetization growth and strong engagement are having a significant impact on Snap’s business.
The JPMorgan analysts were also concerned that CEO Evan Spiegel didn’t speak during analyst Q&A and didn’t offer upfront commentary. “Clearly w/2Q results & the way the call was handled, Snap has an even bigger hill to climb going forward,” they said, reiterating Snap needs to “re-establish a track record of execution.”
Snap said revenue this quarter is “approximately flat.” It said it didn’t provide guidance for the third quarter because “forward-looking visibility remains incredibly challenging.”
CNBC’s Jonathan Vanian contributed to this report.
