What happened
Shares of Snap (SNAP 0.68%) have jumped today, up by 9% as of 11:20 a.m. EDT, after BTIG boosted its price target on the stock. Analyst Rich Greenfield says his firm's "conviction in the company's recovery has meaningfully increased."
So what
After being skeptical for quite some time, Greenfield turned bullish and upgraded his rating to buy in March alongside a $15 price target. The analyst is now increasing Snap's price target from $15 to $20, in part because many investors are "continuing to ignore Snapchat's recovery," in Greenfield's view. He understands why investors might still be skeptical, since the company has a history of overpromising and underdelivering.
Image source: Snap.
That dynamic may be changing. "Snapchat has done a good job keeping expectations low, enabling them to outperform expectations," Greenfield writes. The analyst also increased revenue and earnings estimates in the years ahead.
$SNAP
— Rich Greenfield (@RichBTIG) June 18, 2019
"We believe street expectations for user growth and revenues/EBITDA are simply too low, with far too many investors continuing to ignore Snapchat's recovery"https://t.co/ccOuKSYcBO
Now what
BTIG points to eight potential catalysts that could continue pushing shares higher: Snapchat has become more open to third-party developers releasing content on its platform, the company continues to release innovative new augmented reality (AR) face filters, the casual gaming platform is starting to roll out, premium content quality is improving, the revamped Android version of Snapchat continues to perform well, the company has new ad offerings like Snap Select, the advertising business continues to scale with attractive prices, and internal morale is improving.
The $20 price target is derived from fiscal 2022 estimated adjusted EBITDA ($1.3 billion) using a multiple of 25 and discounted back at a discount rate of 15%.
