How to Buy Snowflake Stock (SNOW)

How to buy Snowflake stock

It's relatively simple to buy shares of Snowflake. Here's a step-by-step guide on how to add the database company to your portfolio.

1. Open a brokerage account

You'll need to open and fund a brokerage account before buying shares of any company. If you don't have one yet, here are some of the best-rated brokers and trading platforms.

2. Figure out your budget

Before making your first trade, you'll need to determine a budget for how much money you want to invest. You'll then want to figure out how to allocate that money. The Motley Fool's investing philosophy recommends building a diversified portfolio of 25 or more stocks you plan to hold for at least five years. If you have only $1000 to start building your portfolio, it would be wise to start with 10 stocks.

3. Do your research

It's essential to thoroughly research a company before buying its shares. You should learn about how it makes money, its competitors, its balance sheet, and other factors to make sure you have a solid grasp on whether the company can grow value for its shareholders over the long term.

4. Place an order

Once you've opened and funded a brokerage account, set your investing budget, and researched the stock, it's time to buy shares. The process is relatively straightforward. Go to your brokerage account's order page and fill out all the relevant information, including:

• The number of shares you want to buy or the amount you want to invest to purchase fractional shares.
• The stock ticker (SNOW for Snowflake).
• Whether you want to place a limit order or a market order. The Motley Fool recommends using a market order since it guarantees you buy shares immediately at the market price.

Once you complete the order page, click to submit your trade and become a Snowflake shareholder.

Should I invest in Snowflake?

Research is an important part of investing that you shouldn't skimp on or skip. Ideally, the process will increase your conviction that a stock is a compelling investment. However, you might uncover something in your research that changes your mind about buying shares.

To help you on your research journey, here are some reasons why you might want to invest in Snowflake:

• You think Snowflake can capitalize on the massive and growing data market.
• You believe Snowflake stock can significantly outperform the S&P 500 over the next three to five years.
• Adding Snowflake would help make your portfolio more diversified.
• You believe AI will become a major growth catalyst for Snowflake.
• You're confident Snowflake can achieve its ambitious long-term growth forecast.
• You're comfortable with Snowflake's lofty valuation (18 times sales and 87 times free cash flow in 2025) and believe the company will grow into it over time.
• You don't need dividend income right now.

On the other hand, here are some factors that might change your mind about investing in the cloud data company:

• You're not sure what Snowflake does or how it makes money.
• You think AI is just another in the long line of recent tech fads.
• You're not convinced that Snowflake can deliver on its lofty growth forecast.
• You're looking for cheap tech stocks.
• You already own several tech stocks in your portfolio.
• You're in or nearing retirement and need investments that generate income.

Is Snowflake profitable?

Digging into the data and analyzing a company's profitability is a crucial part of an investor's research process. Companies need to eventually become profitable to stay in business. Meanwhile, profit growth tends to be the primary driver of a stock's performance over the longer term.

Snowflake wasn't yet profitable on a generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) basis as of 2025. It reported a GAAP net loss through the first half of its 2024 fiscal year ($588.7 million through the first half on $1.2 billion in revenue). As of 2025, Snowflake's GAAP net loss was reported at 10% losing over 100 million.

However, as of 2025, the company was profitable on a non-GAAP basis. It reported $351 million through the first half of its 2024 fiscal year and $299 million in 2025.

Snowflake's long-term goal is to grow its annual product revenue to $10 billion by its 2029 fiscal year. The company also expects to increase its non-GAAP operating margin to 25% while expanding its adjusted free cash flow margin to 25%. This goal suggests the company should become increasingly profitable in the future as it continues to scale its business.

Does Snowflake pay a dividend?

Snowflake hasn't made dividend payments as of 2025. Since Snowflake isn't yet profitable, it likely won't initiate a dividend soon. Although the company generates positive free cash flow, it uses those funds to maintain a strong balance sheet and opportunistically repurchase shares.

How to invest in Snowflake through ETFs

Some investors might prefer to make truly passive investments instead of directly owning stocks that they must actively monitor. Buying an exchange-traded fund (ETF) is an easy way to gain passive exposure to a company like Snowflake without actively owning the stock.

Will Snowflake stock split?

Snowflake didn't have an upcoming stock split on the calendar for 2025. The company has never completed a stock split. Shares of Snowflake initially caught fire following its IPO at $120 a share, surging to more than $400 a share by late 2021. However, it's cooled off considerably since then and was in the $190s in 2025.

The bottom line

Snowflake's Data Cloud platform helps customers manage their data in the cloud. That's becoming increasingly important in our digital world, which relies on more data to run applications like AI. The company believes it has a massive growth runway as more companies use its platform to manage their data. That should enable it to continue growing its revenue briskly and become very profitable over the coming years. This growth could help increase value for shareholders over the long run.

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