Evan Spiegel, CEO of SNAP Inc.
Stephen Desaulniers | CNBC
Snap’s share fell more than 7% in after-hours trading on Thursday after the company reported its fourth-quarter earnings, despite Wall Street’s expectations of earnings, revenue and user growth. But the company delivered an adjusted EBITDA forecast for the first quarter that was much lower than analysts’ consensus expectations.
This is what they reported:
- Adjusted earnings per share: 9 cents versus 7 cents per share predicted by Refinitiv
- Income: $ 911 million at $ 857.4 million predicted by Refinitiv
- Global Daily Active Users (DAUs): 265 million versus 257.79 million per FactSet
- Average Revenue Per User (ARPU): $ 3.44 vs. $ 3.34 predicted by FactSet
Snap led it to lose between $ 50 million and $ 70 million on an adjusted EBITDA basis in the first quarter, and according to Refinitiv is very shy of analysts’ consensus expectations on an adjusted EBITDA profit of $ 19.3 million .
The company’s net loss dropped to $ 113 million, up more than 53% from a net loss of $ 241 million last year.
Snap reported 265 million daily active users, more than 6% more than the 249 million the company reported in October. This is almost 22% higher than the 218 million daily users the company reported a year earlier.
Snap expects revenue growth to be 56% to 60% in the first quarter year-on-year, Snap chief financial officer Derek Andersen said in prepared remarks. The company also expects to reach about 275 million DAUs in the first quarter, Andersen said.
However, the performance of the company in the first quarter can be influenced by two important factors. First, Andersen stressed that Snap experienced two weeks of disruption to advertising demand, while brand advertisers interrupted campaigns in the period following the January 6 uprising at the U.S. Capitol.
“So we started the quarter slower than we would otherwise expect,” Andersen said in his prepared remarks.
In addition, Andersen warned that Apple’s privacy changes in iOS 14, which are expected to take effect late in the first quarter, “pose another risk of disrupting demand.” These changes could affect the ability of social media companies to target ads to users.
“It is not yet clear what the long-term impact of the changes may be on the peak moment of our business, and it will only be clear a few months or longer after the changes are implemented,” Andersen said in his prepared remarks. said.
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