Snap (NYSE:SNAP) Upgraded by Morgan Stanley to Equal Weight

Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Snap (NYSE:SNAP) from an underweight rating to an equal weight rating in a report issued on Tuesday, MarketBeat.com reports. Morgan Stanley currently has $16.00 target price on the stock, up from their prior target price of $12.00.

SNAP has been the topic of several other reports. Canaccord Genuity Group lifted their price target on Snap from $14.00 to $15.00 and gave the stock a hold rating in a research report on Friday, April 26th. Wolfe Research assumed coverage on Snap in a research report on Tuesday, July 16th. They issued a peer perform rating for the company. Evercore ISI boosted their price target on shares of Snap from $13.00 to $14.00 and gave the company an in-line rating in a report on Friday, April 26th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on shares of Snap from $13.50 to $16.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research note on Friday, April 26th. Finally, Benchmark reissued a hold rating on shares of Snap in a research note on Friday, April 26th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seventeen have issued a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Snap has a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of $14.94.

Snap Trading Down 0.9 %

Snap stock opened at $13.33 on Tuesday. Snap has a 1 year low of $8.28 and a 1 year high of $17.90. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $15.60 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $14.04. The firm has a market cap of $21.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -16.39 and a beta of 1.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.55, a quick ratio of 3.76 and a current ratio of 3.76.

Snap (NYSE:SNAP) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The company reported ($0.14) earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.24) by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $1.19 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.12 billion. Snap had a negative return on equity of 46.62% and a negative net margin of 26.99%. On average, research analysts predict that Snap will post -0.44 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other Snap news, CTO Robert C. Murphy sold 1,000,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $14.27, for a total value of $14,270,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief technology officer now directly owns 59,894,865 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $854,699,723.55. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. In related news, CTO Robert C. Murphy sold 1,000,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $14.27, for a total value of $14,270,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief technology officer now owns 59,894,865 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $854,699,723.55. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Evan Spiegel sold 150,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, April 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $14.35, for a total transaction of $2,152,500.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 3,477,844 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $49,907,061.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 1,375,078 shares of company stock worth $19,973,389. Corporate insiders own 22.68% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Snap

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC boosted its holdings in Snap by 12.0% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 40,341 shares of the company’s stock worth $683,000 after acquiring an additional 4,307 shares during the last quarter. Carmignac Gestion bought a new stake in Snap during the 4th quarter valued at $110,103,000. TCW Group Inc. bought a new position in shares of Snap in the fourth quarter worth $275,000. V Square Quantitative Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Snap by 72.7% in the fourth quarter. V Square Quantitative Management LLC now owns 11,119 shares of the company’s stock worth $188,000 after buying an additional 4,679 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Alta Park Capital LP purchased a new position in Snap during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $13,845,000. 47.52% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.