New York, Feb 7, 2026, 06:50 EST — The session has ended.
- Snap closed up on Friday. Still, the mood remains shaky following its recent guidance.
- Analysts aren’t in agreement—some bumped up their ratings at the bottom, while others cut their price targets.
- Ad demand, user numbers, and how the Perplexity launch plays out are now in the spotlight.
Snap Inc (SNAP) finished Friday with a 2% uptick, settling at $5.22. The move comes after shares took a hit earlier in the week. Volume reached around 94 million shares.
Snap’s new outlook gives investors more of the same: profit numbers headed up, but growth still murky. First-quarter revenue is pegged between $1.50 billion and $1.53 billion — just shy of the $1.55 billion analysts were looking for. That’s despite a fourth quarter lift, with active advertisers up 28%. “The ads platform … still has a long way to go in attracting big budgets from enterprise advertisers,” Emarketer’s Max Willens said. 1
Snap rolled out a fresh $500 million share buyback plan and painted the latest quarter as a step toward better margins. CEO Evan Spiegel said, “Our Q4 results began to reflect the impact of our strategic pivot toward profitable growth,” while noting there’s still ongoing work on the consumer launch of Specs. 2
B.Riley took a more bullish stance on Snap, bumping the stock up to buy from neutral while keeping its $10 price target steady. The analysts pointed to growing subscription numbers and gains in higher-margin ad types like Sponsored Snaps and Spotlight. They highlighted the consumer rollout of Specs, slated for later in 2026, as a possible spark for shares. Valuation also came into play, with the firm relying on enterprise value-to-EBITDA to size up the company. 3
Stifel dialed back its stance on Snap, moving the stock up to hold from sell but sticking with that $5.50 price target. Mark Kelley, the analyst, flagged the setup as “more balanced at current levels,” though he highlighted shrinking North America user numbers, “lackluster” ad growth, and little detail on the Perplexity partnership as sticking points. 4
Cantor Fitzgerald lowered its price target on the stock to $7 from $9, sticking with a neutral rating after daily active user numbers missed expectations by a hair. The firm pointed to the first-quarter revenue range and lingering uncertainty over the Perplexity integration as factors holding back any immediate rally. 5
During the earnings call, Snap reported that daily active users (DAU) dropped by 3 million from the previous quarter, landing at 474 million. Executives pointed to a pullback in community-growth marketing and fresh age verification rules in Australia as contributing factors. Monthly active users crept up, coming in at 946 million. 6
Friday saw a wide rally. The Dow pushed past 50,000 for the first time ever, and the Nasdaq surged over 2%. That kind of rebound often gives a jolt to laggards, but Snap isn’t getting the same lift—investors still seem to want more evidence before jumping in. 7
Still, Snap’s situation remains fragile. Ad budgets are fickle, and if North American engagement slips further—or Perplexity’s broader rollout stumbles—the thesis that the stock has priced in bad news could get a real test.
Looking ahead, U.S. data takes center stage after a short government shutdown shuffled the calendar. The January jobs report lands Feb. 11, with January CPI numbers right behind on Feb. 13. Both carry weight for rate bets and market risk, a dynamic that often ricochets through ad-dependent tech names. 8
Fresh catalysts for Snap are scarce ahead of the next earnings report, though analyst calls and buybacks could still move the stock. Wall Street Horizon pegs Snap’s upcoming earnings release for April 28 after the bell, though the date isn’t locked in yet. 9
