Social Media Platform Snap reported (NYSE:SNAP) announced earnings that beat expectations.
Investors will likely be happy with results that failed to show a hit from the Coronavirus, yet.
Snap also generated positive cashflow from operations for the first time, an important milestone.
The company did pull guidance, however, so investors should expect a year of more losses.
Revenue came in at $462 million, above consensus of $420 million.
Revenue growth of 31% was down from last quarter’s growth of 44%.
Adjusted earnings per share beat/missed estimates, coming in at a loss of -$0.08 compared to the consensus estimate of a -$0.07 loss.
[su_panel background=”#ebebec” color=”#05011c” border=”px none ” shadow=”px px px ” radius=”4″ text_align=”center” class=”dw-editor-note”]Snap is doing an excellent job keeping up user growth, but profitability is another story. The market bid up the stock last year in anticipation of better profitability, yet now with the Coronavirus decimating ad spending, there are risks to owning this stock over the next 6-9 months in our opinion. [/su_panel]Advertising spending has fallen hard due to the Coronavirus and Snap will likely struggle to maintain profitability this year in the face of such a weak business environment.
SNAP Has Been Hit Harder Than Peers Due to COVID-19
Snap continues to trade at a 20% multiple premium to peers including rapidly growing competitor Pinterest.
With such a premium multiple Snap has to continue putting up better and better profitability or else the stock is at risk of underperforming.
There’s 5% downside to the stock if Snap were to trade at the trendline for its level of growth instead of at a premium.
Recent concerns around COVID-19 and advertising spending have taken a bite out of Snap’s multiple.
SNAP Trades at a Multiple Premium to More Profitable Peers
Snap had been improving the EBITDA loss rapidly in 2019, driving a rebound in the stock.
However, with the cratering of ad spending ongoing and Q1 a seasonally weak ad spending period, SNAP slid backwards this quarter generating another EBITDA loss.
EBITDA losses are expected to continue this year save for the historically strong holiday season.
EBITDA Losses Will Continue
Snap is accelerating the revenue it generates from each user but is still lagging the profitability of Twitter and Facebook when they were at the same stage of growth.
The market is pricing in a nice acceleration in per user revenue and if Snap doesn’t at least meet Twitter’s numbers, the stock has further downside to it.
Snap Profit Per User Still Has a Long Way to Go
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