Snap stock price target cut by Credit Suisse as advertising budgets rotate
Snap Inc.'s stock price target was reduced by Credit Suisse on Monday ahead of the company's second-quarter earnings on Thursday, July 21. Credit Suisse lowered its target for the Snapchat parent to $45 from $59 amid concern about rotating advertising budgets and economic headwinds. On May 23 Snap said it will likely miss quarterly estimates, citing an economy that has "deteriorated further and faster than anticipated." Credit Suisse's price target cut echoes concerns from analysts about the impact of a slowing economy on digital advertising. "With Snap having already preannounced that it will miss the low-end of 2Q22 guidance, investor focus will primarily be on the 3Q22 outlook and incremental indications for 4Q," wrote Credit Suisse analyst Stephen Ju. "That said, with marketers indicating compressing visibility and classic macro headwind driven behavior of consolidating ad budgets to the larger destinations, we expect the share donation which we called out for Snap at the time of its preannouncement to intensify." However, Credit Suisse maintained its outperform rating on Snap, pointing to potential for better-than-expected Daily Active User growth, a revamped Android app and better-than-expected ad revenue on ramping product rollouts and marketer adoption. Of 41 analysts surveyed by FactSet, 30 have overweight or buy ratings, 10 have hold ratings and one has a sell rating. Snap shares gained 3% to $14.06 on Monday, outpacing the S&P 500's 0.7% gain.
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