Snap shares rose 62% on first-ever quarterly net profit

Snap reported its quarterly net profit and beat analyst estimates for the Q4 on earnings, revenue, and user growth.

The report comes a day after Meta delivered disappointing guidance for the Q1 that pulled down several social media stocks with it. Snap fell 23.8% Thursday before its earnings announcement but increased as much as 64% after hours before settling up about 54%.

Snap Inc., the parent company of the popular messaging app Snapchat, reported its 1Q profit, sending its stock soaring as much as 62% in extended trading. The company has struggled since its public offering in March. It said it might lose as much as $1 billion in the current quarter. The news boosted the stock of other messaging app providers, including Facebook Inc. and Twitter Inc. Shares of Snap were still up nearly 27% in after-hours trading following the company’s earnings call.

Overview of Snap’s case

The company reported a loss of $443 million, or $1.03 a share, in the quarter.

Here are the key numbers:

• Earnings per share: 23 cents, adjusted vs. 10 cents expected, according to a Refinitiv survey of analysts
• Revenue: $1.4 billion vs $1.3 billion, according to Refinitv
• Global Daily Active Daily Users (DAUs): 318 million vs. 316.8 million, according to StreetAccount
• Average Revenue per User (ARPU): $4.07 vs $3.78, according to StreetAccount

According to Refinitiv, the company also provided a Q1 guidance range of $1.04 billion to $1.09 billion. It appeared higher than the $1.02 billion analysts anticipated. According to StreetAccount, Snap expects daily active users between 329 million and 335 million in the first quarter, beating analyst estimates of 327.9 million.

Snap has to compete with similar headwinds as Meta, which warned that it anticipates a $15 billion revenue hit in 2022. It resulted from Apple’s privacy changes that make it harder to target customers with advertiser content.