Snap Inc. will announce its third-quarter earnings tomorrow (Oct. 24), and analysts expect to see its third consecutive decline in revenue and a net loss. However, CEO Evan Spiegel seems confident he can beat projected user and ad revenue goals in 2024.
The company, which owns the social media app Snapchat, is expected to post a quarterly revenue of $1.11 billion, down from $1.13 billion the same period last year. Analysts expect an adjusted loss of $0.05 per share for the period ended September, narrower from a per-share loss of $0.22 a year ago.
Snap’s financial results for the past quarter shouldn’t be far-fetched from the last one, which showed declines in earnings per share, free cash flow and gross margin. The decline in earnings per share especially hurt, as shares sunk 17 percent after missing analyst estimates in the second quarter. Although revenue wasn’t down, it only beat projections slightly.
Earlier this year, Snap reported revenue fell for the first time since becoming a publicly traded company in 2017. Snap and other digital companies, including Meta, have struggled to make up advertising revenue after Apple changed its privacy policy in 2021. This allowed users to ask companies not to track their data when using apps that have advertisements. The advertising economy has been challenging across industries.
Though this earnings report may not be impressive, Spiegel seems to be looking forward to 2024. In an internal company memo in September, he projected that Snap’s daily active users will grow to 475 million in 2024, outpacing analysts’ projection of 448 million. Following the memo leak, Snap shares jumped 12 percent. User growth has been one of the factors that remained steady for Snap. This past June, the company reported that it had 397 million daily active users, up 14.4 percent from a year prior.
In the same memo, Spiegel also projected that Snap’s gross profit (EBITDA) for 2023 will be $500 million (analysts expect half that).