Snap pops more than 16% on earnings beat and user growth

Snap’s stock rose more than 16% on Thursday after the company reported its second-quarter earnings, beating expectations across the board for earnings, revenue and user growth.

Here’s what Snap reported versus Wall Street’s estimates:

  • Adjusted earnings per share: 10 cents vs. 1 cent loss forecast by Refinitiv
  • Revenue: $982 million vs. $846 million forecast by Refinitiv
  • Global daily active users (DAUs): 293 million vs. 290.3 million per StreetAccount
  • Average revenue per user (ARPU): $3.35 vs. $2.92 per StreetAccountt

Snap said the company was not impacted by Apple’s iOS 14.5 privacy changes as it had anticipated that it would be. This was due to the mobile operating system update rolling out later than expected, iOS users being slow to update their devices and Snap observing “higher opt-in rates than we are seeing reported generally across the industry, which we believe is due in part to the trust our community has in our products and our business,” Jeremi Gorman, Snap’s chief business officer, said in her prepared remarks.

“This has given us more time with advertisers to navigate the transition but also means the effects of these changes will come later than we initially expected,” Gorman said.

Snap’s net loss narrowed 53% to $152 million, from a loss of $326 million a year ago.

Snap reported 293 million daily active users, up nearly 5% from the 280 million the company reported in April. That figure is up more than 23% compared with the 238 million daily users the company reported a year prior.

Snap expects year-over-year revenue growth of 58% to 60% for the third quarter, the company said. That is down compared to the 116% annualized revenue growth it saw in Q2. Snap expects to reach approximately 301 million DAUs in the third quarter, the company said in its prepared remarks.

“This range reflects our best current estimate of the potential impact of anticipated disruptions associated with the iOS platform changes,” Snap Chief Financial Officer Derek Andersen said in his prepared remarks.

The company said the resurgence of Covid-19 cases presents an uncertain operating environment heading into Q3.