Snap Inc. (NYSE: SNAP) is trading lower on Tuesday, Dec. 23, 2025, after a strong prior session that put the spotlight back on the company’s two biggest levers: advertising performance and product-driven engagement (increasingly boosted by AI).
As of the latest available intraday print, Snap shares were at $7.815, down 1.57% on the day, after opening at $7.84 and trading between $7.74 and $7.92.
Below is a comprehensive, up-to-date look at the latest Snap stock news, the most widely-cited forecasts, and the key bull/bear debates shaping SNAP as of 23.12.2025.
Snap stock price action on Dec. 23, 2025
Monday (Dec. 22) delivered the kind of move SNAP investors know all too well: sharp, news-driven, and emotionally loud.
- Dec. 22 close: Snap surged 4.89% to $7.94, outperforming major rivals during a broadly positive market session. [1]
- 52-week context: Even after Monday’s jump, SNAP remained roughly 40% below its 52-week high of $13.28, set on Jan. 10, 2025 (with a 52-week low of $6.90). [2]
- Tuesday (Dec. 23) trade: Shares slipped back toward the $7.8 area in early trading, a common pattern after a one-day catalyst pop in a high-volatility name. [3]
This is the core “SNAP stock personality”: it doesn’t merely drift—it reacts.
What’s driving SNAP right now: AI video creation + a lawsuit exit
1) Snap launches an AI-powered video tool for Lens+ subscribers
The biggest single-stock catalyst in the last 24 hours came from product news. On Dec. 22, shares jumped after Snap introduced an AI video generation feature for its Lens+ subscription tier.
StockStory reported the tool is called “Animate It”, designed to turn ideas into short videos using Snap’s own AI model—tapping into the market’s continuing enthusiasm for consumer-facing generative AI features. [4]
Why investors cared: Snap’s long-term challenge isn’t inventing cool things—Snap is excellent at that. The challenge is converting that creativity into durable monetization. Tools that tie AI creation to paid tiers (Lens+ and Snapchat+) are watched as signals that Snap is still trying to expand beyond pure ad dependency. [5]
2) An investor voluntarily drops a lawsuit tied to an alleged ad-platform issue
The same day, legal news added fuel. Bloomberg Law reported a Snap investor voluntarily dismissed a lawsuit alleging Snap hid a technical issue that impacted advertising revenue before the company reported underwhelming Q2 2025 results. [6]
StockStory also cited the lawsuit dismissal as part of the positive backdrop behind Monday’s move. [7]
Legal overhang matters for SNAP because the market is already sensitive to anything that implies “surprise weakness” in ad performance—especially after the platform-wide shockwaves from Apple privacy changes in earlier years and ongoing ad-tech competition from Meta, TikTok, and others. [8]
Snap’s latest fundamentals: what Q3 2025 said about growth, users, and cash flow
The most recent official financial snapshot remains Snap’s Third Quarter 2025 report (quarter ended Sept. 30, 2025).
Snap reported:
- Revenue:$1.507 billion, up 10% year-over-year [9]
- Daily Active Users (DAU):477 million, up 8% year-over-year [10]
- Monthly Active Users (MAU):943 million, up 7% year-over-year [11]
- Operating cash flow:$146 million; Free Cash Flow:$93 million [12]
- Net loss:$104 million (narrower than prior year, per Reuters) [13]
- Adjusted EBITDA:$182 million [14]
The ad business: direct response is still the engine
Snap highlighted that Direct Response advertising revenue increased 8% year-over-year, and purchase-related ad revenue grew over 30%—two metrics investors use as proxies for whether Snap’s ad tools are improving enough to keep pace with larger platforms. [15]
Subscription and “Other Revenue” quietly mattered more
Snap also reported Other Revenue (mostly subscription revenue, including Snapchat+) rose 54% year-over-year to $190 million in Q3. [16]
That’s a key thread for the SNAP investment narrative: ads pay the bills, but subscriptions can improve revenue mix and reduce reliance on pure advertising cycles—if Snap can keep them growing.
The Perplexity partnership: $400 million, AI search inside Snapchat, and 2026 expectations
One of the most consequential strategic announcements late in 2025 was Snap’s partnership with Perplexity AI.
Snap’s investor release states that Perplexity will pay Snap $400 million over one year through a mix of cash and equity, tied to global rollout milestones, with revenue expected to begin contributing in 2026. [17]
Reuters’ coverage added important detail and industry framing:
- The integration is designed to deliver AI-powered search answers within Snapchat. [18]
- Snap CEO Evan Spiegel said Snap won’t sell advertising against Perplexity responses, meaning the strategic value is more about engagement and product utility than immediate ad inventory. [19]
- An eMarketer analyst characterized the deal as mutually strategic: Perplexity gets access to younger users, while Snap gets an AI partner that helps keep users inside the app. [20]
- When the deal was announced, Reuters reported Snap shares jumped sharply in after-hours and premarket trading (reflecting renewed investor belief that Snap can “show up” in the AI race). [21]
For investors evaluating Snap into 2026, this partnership is frequently cited because it’s a rare example of an AI initiative that has a clearly disclosed dollar figure attached.
Snapchat+: subscriptions, retention, and why “paid perks” are becoming strategic
Reuters reported on Oct. 28, 2025 that Snapchat+ exceeded 16 million subscribers, more than doubling since early 2024. [22]
The same report cited internal retention data: subscribers who used customization features (e.g., custom app icons, personalized wallpapers) showed retention rates more than 10 percentage points higher than other users. [23]
This matters for Snap stock because subscriptions can do something ads can’t: provide a more predictable revenue layer. Combined with AI creation tools like “Animate It,” Snap appears to be pushing a broader thesis—pay for creative power and personalization—instead of trying to win an arms race in ad pricing alone. [24]
Regulatory and geopolitical risks in the current Snap headline mix
Australia: under-16 accounts locked as age rules ramp up
Snap’s own newsroom update on Australia’s Social Media Minimum Age Law says that from Dec. 10, 2025, Snap would begin taking steps to lock accounts of users under 16 in Australia and prompt many users to verify age. [25]
Reuters also flagged “age verification and evolving regulatory landscapes” as reasons Snap expected potential engagement impacts, specifically referencing Australia’s minimum age law. [26]
Russia: Snapchat access blocked
Reuters reported that on Dec. 4, 2025, Russia blocked access to Snapchat, citing claims that the platform was used to organize terrorist acts and recruit perpetrators. [27]
While Russia may not be Snap’s largest revenue region, abrupt access restrictions are part of a broader risk category: geopolitical fragmentation of consumer platforms and the operational uncertainty that comes with it. [28]
Corporate governance update: a new board member with hardware experience
On Dec. 8, 2025, Snap announced that Matthew McRae, CEO of Arlo Technologies, joined Snap’s board of directors effective Dec. 4, 2025. [29]
Why it stands out: Snap is one of the few consumer social companies still serious about hardware and augmented reality as a long game—so board-level experience spanning hardware/software is something investors notice, particularly heading into a period when Snap plans consumer AR products. [30]
Hardware as a 2026 catalyst: Snap’s “Specs” smart glasses plan
Reuters reported that Snap plans to launch its first consumer-oriented AR smart glasses, called “Specs,” in 2026, escalating competition with Meta in wearables. [31]
Key details from Reuters:
- Snap has invested more than $3 billion over 11 years developing AR glasses, according to CEO Evan Spiegel. [32]
- Snap said it would partner with Niantic Spatial to enhance Lens Studio for AR experiences across Snapchat and Specs. [33]
For SNAP investors, hardware is a classic “high upside / high skepticism” area: it can open new markets, but it can also burn cash. Still, the fact that Snap continues to invest signals that AR is not a side quest—it’s part of the company’s identity. [34]
Insider selling: what investors saw earlier in December
On the insider activity front, a Refinitiv item published via TradingView reported that Snap CEO Evan Spiegel filed a Form 4 disclosing the sale of 1,259,900 shares, with an average price around $8.01, totaling about $10.1 million, across Dec. 5–Dec. 8 (filed Dec. 9, 2025). [35]
Insider sales don’t automatically mean “bad news” (executives sell for many reasons), but large sales can amplify investor sensitivity in already-volatile stocks—especially when SNAP is trying to prove a path to consistent profitability. [36]
Wall Street outlook: Snap price targets, earnings expectations, and the next catalyst date
Analyst price targets
MarketBeat’s consolidated analyst data (updated 12/23/2025) shows:
- Consensus 12-month price target:$9.88
- High target:$13.00
- Low target:$7.00
- Implied upside: roughly 26% from around $7.82 (near where SNAP has traded this week) [37]
That spread is telling: the market has not reached anything close to consensus on whether Snap is a turnaround growth story or a structurally challenged ad platform.
Earnings forecast trend
MarketBeat’s earnings page reports:
- Snap posted Q3 2025 EPS of -$0.06 versus a consensus estimate of $0.06 (per MarketBeat’s aggregation). [38]
- MarketBeat also states Snap’s earnings are expected to improve next year from ($0.30) to ($0.16) per share (again, per its compiled estimates). [39]
Next earnings date: “early February” is the base case, but it’s not confirmed
MarketBeat lists an estimated next earnings date of Feb. 3, 2026 (after market close) and explicitly notes Snap has not confirmed it. [40]
Nasdaq’s earnings page similarly shows 02/03/2026 as an estimate derived algorithmically. [41]
Because different market calendars can disagree until the company formally announces, investors should treat the early-February window as a working expectation—not a confirmed appointment. [42]
The Snap stock debate, distilled: bull case vs. bear case
The bull case for SNAP (what could go right)
Snap’s more optimistic narrative going into 2026 tends to rest on four pillars:
- User scale is still growing (477M DAU; 943M MAU in Q3), supporting long-run monetization potential. [43]
- Direct response ad tools are improving, with DR ad revenue up 8% and purchase-related ad revenue up over 30% in Q3. [44]
- Subscriptions are becoming real money, with “Other Revenue” up 54% to $190M in Q3, plus Snapchat+ subscriber growth. [45]
- AI initiatives have identifiable monetization hooks, especially the disclosed $400M Perplexity partnership expected to contribute starting in 2026. [46]
The bear case for SNAP (what could go wrong)
The skeptical view typically highlights:
- Profitability remains uneven, with continued net losses even as cash flow improves. [47]
- Regulatory changes can hit engagement, as seen in Australia’s under-16 account locks and broader age-verification dynamics flagged by Snap and Reuters. [48]
- Geopolitical access risk is real, with Russia blocking Snapchat access. [49]
- High volatility cuts both ways—great for traders, punishing for long-term investors if fundamentals don’t steadily improve. (StockStory noted SNAP had 25 moves greater than 5% over the last year.) [50]
Bottom line for Dec. 23, 2025: why Snap stock is back on investors’ radar
Snap stock is lower today, but the bigger story is that the company has stacked multiple headline drivers into a short time window:
- AI product momentum (new creative tools tied to paid tiers) [51]
- Legal headline relief (at least one investor lawsuit voluntarily dismissed) [52]
- A clearly priced AI partnership (Perplexity’s $400M deal, with expected 2026 contribution) [53]
- A known 2026 catalyst (consumer “Specs” smart glasses) [54]
- But also ongoing risk headlines (age restrictions, platform blocks, and the constant gravity of ad competition) [55]
For investors, the practical watchlist is straightforward: ad performance, subscription growth, and whether AI features actually translate into retention and revenue—not just applause.
References
1. www.marketwatch.com, 2. www.marketwatch.com, 3. stockanalysis.com, 4. stockstory.org, 5. stockstory.org, 6. news.bloomberglaw.com, 7. stockstory.org, 8. news.bloomberglaw.com, 9. investor.snap.com, 10. investor.snap.com, 11. investor.snap.com, 12. investor.snap.com, 13. www.reuters.com, 14. investor.snap.com, 15. investor.snap.com, 16. investor.snap.com, 17. investor.snap.com, 18. www.reuters.com, 19. www.reuters.com, 20. www.reuters.com, 21. www.reuters.com, 22. www.reuters.com, 23. www.reuters.com, 24. stockstory.org, 25. newsroom.snap.com, 26. www.reuters.com, 27. www.reuters.com, 28. www.reuters.com, 29. www.businesswire.com, 30. www.businesswire.com, 31. www.reuters.com, 32. www.reuters.com, 33. www.reuters.com, 34. www.reuters.com, 35. www.tradingview.com, 36. www.tradingview.com, 37. www.marketbeat.com, 38. www.marketbeat.com, 39. www.marketbeat.com, 40. www.marketbeat.com, 41. www.nasdaq.com, 42. www.marketbeat.com, 43. investor.snap.com, 44. investor.snap.com, 45. investor.snap.com, 46. investor.snap.com, 47. investor.snap.com, 48. newsroom.snap.com, 49. www.reuters.com, 50. stockstory.org, 51. stockstory.org, 52. news.bloomberglaw.com, 53. investor.snap.com, 54. www.reuters.com, 55. newsroom.snap.com
