Snap Inc. (NYSE: SNAP) shares continued on their long way down, hitting a post-IPO low in Tuesday’s session. This camera app company has been the subject of much controversy in the analyst community, with some calling for a turnaround while others are calling for it to sink even lower. So it’s no surprise that analysts piled on Snap Tuesday after shares sank below their IPO pricing.
Morgan Stanley was one of the underwriters for the IPO, so it may be insulting that this particular firm is backing off a company that it helped bring public. Morgan Stanley downgraded the stock to an Equal Weight rating from Overweight and cut its price target to $16 from $28. In a comment to investors, the investment bank said:
Snap’s ad product is not evolving/improving as quickly as we expected and Instagram competition is increasing.
We have been wrong about SNAP’s ability to innovate and improve its ad product this year (improving scalability, targeting, measurability, etc.) and user monetization as it works to move beyond ‘experimental’ ad budgets into larger branded and direct response ad allocations.
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However Morgan Stanley was not the only one backing off Snap. Pivotal Research maintained its Sell rating and $9 target price on Snap, noting:
While we’re still negative on Snap as a stock at current valuation levels (we value it at $9), the company appears to be doing reasonably well in terms of usage according to our analysis of Nielsen’s DCR data, and there are many devoted advertisers who will support its growth, especially the film studios.
JPMorgan cut its target to $18 from $20 with a Neutral rating back in June. Even back in May, Susquehanna Financial Group kept a Neutral rating but cut its target to $15 from $22.
Shares of Snap were last seen trading down 6% at $15.98, with a consensus analyst price target of $20.83 and a 52-week range of $15.84 to $29.44.
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