Rakuten Securities Inc. Buys New Holdings in Snap Inc. (NYSE:SNAP)

Rakuten Securities Inc. purchased a new position in Snap Inc. (NYSE:SNAP) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 4,338 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $73,000.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Sowell Financial Services LLC boosted its position in shares of Snap by 3.3% during the fourth quarter. Sowell Financial Services LLC now owns 23,139 shares of the company’s stock worth $392,000 after acquiring an additional 729 shares during the last quarter. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of Snap by 7.4% during the 2nd quarter. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. now owns 13,440 shares of the company’s stock valued at $176,000 after purchasing an additional 930 shares during the last quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc grew its position in shares of Snap by 4.5% during the third quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc now owns 23,434 shares of the company’s stock valued at $209,000 after purchasing an additional 1,017 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Snap by 7.1% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 15,373 shares of the company’s stock worth $137,000 after buying an additional 1,025 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ethic Inc. raised its position in shares of Snap by 13.5% during the 1st quarter. Ethic Inc. now owns 9,184 shares of the company’s stock valued at $331,000 after buying an additional 1,089 shares in the last quarter. 47.52% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have weighed in on SNAP. UBS Group reduced their price objective on Snap from $14.00 to $13.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday. Roth Mkm raised their price target on Snap from $10.00 to $14.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, January 26th. Rosenblatt Securities boosted their price objective on shares of Snap from $11.00 to $12.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their target price on shares of Snap from $15.00 to $13.50 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 8th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded shares of Snap from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the company from $10.00 to $19.00 in a report on Friday, January 26th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Snap presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $13.86.

Snap Stock Up 4.7 %

SNAP stock opened at $10.90 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $17.99 billion, a P/E ratio of -13.13 and a beta of 1.13. Snap Inc. has a 12 month low of $7.86 and a 12 month high of $17.90. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $11.19 and its 200-day simple moving average is $12.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.55, a current ratio of 4.39 and a quick ratio of 4.39.

Snap (NYSE:SNAP) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The company reported ($0.12) earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.16) by $0.04. Snap had a negative net margin of 28.71% and a negative return on equity of 47.47%. The firm had revenue of $1.36 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.39 billion. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Snap Inc. will post -0.58 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO Rebecca Morrow sold 9,386 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, February 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $11.14, for a total transaction of $104,560.04. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 495,526 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,520,159.64. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Snap news, General Counsel Michael J. O’sullivan sold 13,000 shares of Snap stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $16.16, for a total value of $210,080.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 461,005 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,449,840.80. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Rebecca Morrow sold 9,386 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $11.14, for a total transaction of $104,560.04. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 495,526 shares in the company, valued at $5,520,159.64. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 470,054 shares of company stock valued at $5,279,729. 22.68% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Snap Company Profile

Snap Inc operates as a technology company in North America, Europe, and internationally. The company offers Snapchat, a visual messaging application with various tabs, such as camera, visual messaging, snap map, stories, and spotlight that enable people to communicate visually through short videos and images.