Snap’s stock fell more than 30 percent in after-hours trading on Tuesday after its guidance fell short of analyst expectations even as the company reported a 5 percent increase in revenue, its second straight quarter of growth.
The Snapchat parent company released guidance for the first quarter estimating larger-than-expected losses compared with Wall Street’s expectations — prompting some analysts to suspect the company was spending more aggressively than anticipated. Last quarter, Snap declined to provide guidance because of the uncertainty surrounding the war between Israel and Hamas.
Amplifying concerns, Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, reported last week that its profit had more than tripled.
“This is particularly problematic for the company after Meta posted such great numbers in the same quarter, as it hints that Snap’s concerns are not macroeconomic in nature but mainly internal,” said Thomas Monteiro, a senior analyst at the financial website Investing.com.
Snap’s revenue for the three months that ended Dec. 31 was $1.36 billion, up from $1.3 billion a year earlier but below Wall Street projections of $1.38 billion. Net losses for the fourth quarter narrowed to $248 million, from $288 million a year earlier.
Evan Spiegel, the company’s chief executive, said in a letter to investors on Tuesday that “2023 was a pivotal year for Snap, as we focused relentlessly on adding value to our community while evolving our business for long-term growth.”
On Monday, Snap laid off more than 500 workers, or about 10 percent of its global work force, part of a bigger wave of targeted cuts by tech companies this year.
On a call with analysts on Tuesday, executives said the job cuts would reduce costs starting in the second quarter, adding that people-related expenses made up roughly two-thirds of overall operating expenses.
“While this decision was painful, and we will miss our friends and colleagues, we believe these changes are necessary to achieve our long-term goals” and manage expenses, Mr. Spiegel said in the letter.
Over the past year, Snap has been pivoting its business to direct-response ads, which let customers click to buy products. Mr. Spiegel said the ad-platform change prompted declining sales during the first half of the year. But, he said, the move will better position Snap’s advertising business for long-term growth.
Analysts, however, have said the app may struggle with that model, since users primarily use the app to message one another and don’t always see ads.
Scott Kessler, an analyst at Third Bridge, said the slim revenue growth during a quarter that included the holiday shopping season showed that Snap’s changes in the advertising platform were “taking more time and maybe costing more money than people expected.”
The company also pointed on Tuesday to successes with new services like Snapchat Plus, a subscription service available since July 2022 that costs $3.99 a month and now has over seven million paid users. And it said Snap Star, a creator program that started in early 2022, had lured many content creators onto the platform with the promise of earnings from ads posted alongside their public stories.
Snap’s user base continued to grow in the fourth quarter. There were 414 million daily active users, a 10 percent increase from a year earlier. Monthly active users, typically disclosed once a year, increased 8 percent and surpassed 800 million.
