JPMorgan
Price Target: $6
Rating: Underweight
"We view Tim’s resignation as CFO—after only 8 months on the job—as a clear negative," analysts led by Doug Anmuth told clients on Tuesday.
"We believe in his short time at Snap Tim implemented greater operational and financial discipline, with emphasis on moving Snap toward positive free cash flow and profitability."
They added: "Importantly, Tim’s departure suggests it will become even more challenging for Snap to recruit and retain high quality executives."
Anmuth and his team also said Snap shares would be under pressure, but believe a modest bull case has emerged for a "small number of investors focused around easier revenue comps in '19, engagement potentially bottoming out, and extremely negative sentiment."
RBC Capital Markets
Price Target: $8
Rating: Downgraded to "sector perform"
"Fundamentals have been very uneven since the company’s IPO," analysts led by Mark Mahaney told clients on Tuesday. "Our belief is that this has in part been due to severe competitive pressures (from FB), but also due to very uneven execution. Our hope had been that the May 2018 hiring of Tim Stone as CFO would help improve the company’s execution."
They added: "With his relatively sudden departure, our confidence in a fundamental turnaround has been lessened."
Pivotal Research
Price target: $6
Rating: Hold
"Snap's CFO announced his resignation after a short time at the company, but at the same time the company reported positive financial trends, which complement the usage uptick we have observed in recent months through Nielsen’s DCR data," analyst Brian Wieser told clients on Wednesday.
Wieser viewed the positive financial trends of the Tuesday filing as "significant."
Jefferies
Price Target: $7
Rating: Hold
"This is a clear negative in our mind as 2 CFOs have left within 1 year of each other without meaningful financial progress. While results seem decent for 4Q, questions around management remain for Snap," analysts led by Brent Thill wrote on Tuesday.
"While 4Q numbers are reported to be slightly favorable to the top end of previously reported quarterly guidance we still question the outlook for '19."
