Snap's Bears And Bulls Heading Into Q3 Earnings

Ephemeral photo and video sharing company Snap Inc SNAP is readying to table its quarterly financial scorecard, its third report as a public company. The company is scheduled to release its third-quarter earnings after the close of trading on Tuesday.

Sell-side analysts are mostly sidelined on Snap, given the skepticism concerning its fundamentals. The average analysts' rating on shares is a Hold, and the average analysts' price target is $14.78.

After hitting a low of $11.83 on Aug. 11, the stock staged a modest recovery but has been mostly locked in a $14.50 to $16 trading range. This represents a strong pullback from the high of $27.09 hit on April 3, the second session following its listing.

SNAP Source: Y Charts

TipRanks has the average analyst recommendation at Hold and the average price target at $15.07, with the high- and low-end of the range of the price target at $30 and $8, respectively. This is based on the views of 28 analysts. Going by the average analysts' price target, the stock is trading roughly in line with the target, suggested little downside or upside potential.

See Also: When Will Marketers Embrace Snap?

Analysts, on average, expect Snap to report a loss of 15 cents per share on revenues of $239.45 million for the quarter.

A look at stock reaction post-earnings over its brief history as a public company showed that Snap fell 21.5 percent following its first-quarter results. Incidentally, the stock couldn't get around to scale its pre-earnings high thus far. The second-quarter earnings release triggered a 14-percent downward move, but the stock recovered and moved above its pre-earnings high in four sessions.

Here are all the ratings and price targets for shares of Snap over the past two months:

• Deutsche Bank – Reiterated Hold/Price Target at $17
• BTIG – Reiterated Hold Rating
• Aegis Capital – Reiterated Hold/ Price Target at $15
• RBC Capital Markets - Reiterated Buy/ Price Target at $20
• Credit Suisse – Outperform/Price Target at $20
• Barclays - Reiterated Buy/ Price Target at $13
• Wedbush – Initiated at Neutral/ Price Target at $12
• SunTrust Robinson Humphrey – Reiterated Sell/Price Target at $10
• Cowen – Reiterated Hold/ Price Target at $14
• JPMorgan - Reiterated Hold/ Price Target at $14
• Cantor Fitzgerald – Reiterated Overweight/ Price Target at $17
• Oppenheimer – Reiterated Buy/Price Target at $16
• Morgan Stanley – Assigned Hold/Price Target at $14