Here’s what Wall St. experts are saying about Snap ahead of earnings

Snap (SNAP) is expected to report results for its third quarter on Tuesday, October 29, with a conference call scheduled for 5:00 pm EDT. What to watch for:

INFLECTION IN IMPRESSION GROWTH: On Wednesday, JMP Securities upgraded Snap to Outperform from Market Perform with a $17 price target With Snap set to roll out Simple Snapchat and launch Sponsored Snaps, it will see an “inflection in impression growth,” the firm tells investors in a research note. JMP believes the company can grow U.S. and North American engagement and drive greater advertising load with its new ad products. Additionally, channel checks with larger performance advertisers also are coming back favorably as Snap’s direct response product improvements are gaining traction, adds the firm.

Earlier this month, Stifel lowered the firm’s price target on Snap to $11 from $13, keeping a Hold rating on the shares. The firm told investors in a Q3 preview for the digital advertising group that its checks suggest accelerating growth was seen in Q3 ahead of agency initial forecasts, which it expects to carry into Q4 with the U.S. election advertising environment ramping and “a fairly robust holiday season.”

IN LINE TO SLIGHTLY BETTER: Wells Fargo also lowered the firm’s price target on Snap to $14 from $15, but kept an Overweight rating on the shares. Wells sees an in line to slightly better print and Q4 guidance for Snap. The firm views the app relaunch as “critical” to engagement acceleration, and believes investors remain cautious with concerns on a potential adverse impact on 2025 revenue.

OUTLOOK: During the last earnings conference call, Snap said it saw Q3 revenue in the range of $1.335B-$1.375B, and Q3 adjusted EBITDA of $70M-$100M. The company also cut its FY24 adjusted operating expenses view to $2.425B-$2.525B from $2.43B-$2.53B. Snap backed FY24 content and developer partner costs and advertising partner and other costs view of 19%-21% of revenue, and FY24 infrastructure cost per DAU view of 83c-85c per quarter.

Current consensus EPS and revenue forecasts for Snap’s third quarter stand at 5c and $1.36B, respectively, according to data from Yahoo Finance. The consensus EPS and revenue forecasts for Snap’s full year 2024 stand at 21c and $5.34B, respectively.

SENTIMENT: Click here to check out Snap’s recent Media Buzz Sentiment as measured by TipRanks.