After first being offered publicly less than a month ago, on March 1, for $17, in a hotly oversubscribed initial public offering, Snap, Inc. (NYSE: SNAP) stock has traded as high as $29.44, before falling back to trade as low as $18.90 on March 17. A bevy of firms initiated coverage on shares in SNAP Monday, including Goldman Sachs, Citi, JMP Securities, Jefferies, William Blair, Morgan Stanley, RBC Capital, and Cowen, as reported by The Motley Fool. Technically, today's high-volume rally has SNAP stock trading above a secondary resistance level of $23.68, with the next major resistance being SNAP's March 3 high, above $29.
Appearing on CNBC earlier on Monday, Mark Mahaney, with RBC Capital Markets, was asked about his $31 price target for SNAP shares, and how such a valuation would put the stock in the same "ballpark" as Facebook, Inc. (Nasdaq: FB) and Twitter, Inc. (NYSE: TWTR), near 20 times 2018 revenue. Mr. Mahaney characterized the $31 price target and price-to-sales multiple as "aggressive." He noted that FB stock trades at about 10 times revenue, with a 40 percent growth rate, that he expects Snap to grow "five times faster than that," with revenue growth near 200 percent, and to continue growing near "100 percent" annually for the next few years.
'Triple-digit' sales growth over coming years
The RBC Capital analyst compared Facebook's revenue of $26 billion, and Alphabet Inc.'s (Nasdaq: GOOG, GOOGL) revenue of $80 billion, with Snap's revenue of $600 million in 2016.
After giving the qualification, "if they succeed," Mahaney offered the opinion that Snap can deliver "triple-digit" sales growth for the next "several years."
CNBC then moved to UBS analyst Eric Sheridan, and his $24 price target for SNAP stock, just $0.17 above where it currently trades. Mr. Sheridan's rating on the stock is described as "neutral." He stated that UBS was "reticent" to put such high valuations on a company like Snap, so early in its growth, and expressed the view that the Snapchat parent won't be profitable until 2020.
At current prices, Mr. Sheridan sees a "roughly equal risk/reward" profile.
As Blasting News has previously reported, the UBS analyst cautions that, unlike Facebook, which was not only growing quickly, but was also profitable when it first offered FB stock publicly in 2012, management with Snap has decided to go public at a much earlier point in the firm's development cycle, a full three years before forecast profits.
Will millennials continue to use Snapchat?
Mr. Mahaney stated that one of the "key questions," surrounding the future of Snapchat, and the future of SNAP stock, is whether or not millennials, by far the biggest users of the service, will continue to use it throughout their lives. Fifty percent of millennials and 20 percent of 36-50-year-old Americans are regular Snapchat users, with numbers on the rise, which the RBC researcher described as "a bullish indicator." He cited Facebook, or other competitors, successfully encroaching on Snap's market share as being among the biggest risks for the company.
CNBC listed the new price targets for SNAP stock, by each of the firms: UBS sees $24, Cowen sees $26, RBC Capital sees $31, Goldman Sachs sees $27, Citi sees $27, JPM Securities sees $24, Morgan Stanley sees $28, and Bank of America sees $25.
