Snap (SNAP) Q1 2024 Earnings

A click reported first quarter results on Thursday, beating analysts’ estimates and showing a return to double-digit revenue growth. Shares jumped more than 23% in extended trading.

Here’s how the company fared:

• Earnings per share: 3 cents adjusted against a loss of 5 cents expected by LSEG
• Income: $1.19 billion vs. $1.12 billion expected by LSEG
• Global daily active users: 422 million vs. 420 million expected, according to StreetAccount
• Average revenue per user: $2.83 vs. $2.67 expected, according to StreetAccount

Snap’s first-quarter revenue rose 21% from $989 million in the same period last year. The company is growing at an accelerated pace after previously posting six straight quarters of single-digit sales growth or decline.

Snap has been working to rebuild its ad business after the digital ad market stumbled in 2022, and it’s starting to pay off. In its investor letter, Snap said the revenue growth was primarily due to improvements in the company’s advertising platform, as well as demand for its direct response advertising solutions.

On its quarterly call with investors, Snap CFO Derek Anderson said the company also benefited from improvements in the larger work environment.

“I think more broadly we saw a much more robust brand environment that played out across all of our regions in Q1,” Andersen said.

Advertising revenue totaled $1.11 billion in the first quarter. Snap’s Other Revenue category, which is primarily driven by Snapchat+ subscribers, reached $87 million, up 194% year-over-year. Snap reported more than 9 million Snapchat+ subscribers for the period.

Adjusted EBITDA for the first quarter was $46 million, far exceeding the $68 million loss expected by analysts, according to StreetAccount. In its investor letter, Snap said adjusted EBITDA “exceeded our expectations” and was driven primarily by operating expense discipline as well as accelerating revenue growth.

“Given the progress we’ve made with our advertising platform, the leadership team we’ve built and the strategic priorities we’ve set, we believe we’re well-positioned to continue to improve our business performance,” Snap wrote in the letter.

Although Snap’s growth has accelerated, it still lags behind that of Meta, which reported a 27% rise in its better-than-expected first-quarter results on Wednesday. Meta shares tumbled anyway after the company issued a soft forecast and spooked investors with talk of its long-term investments.

Snap’s net loss for the quarter narrowed to $305.1 million, or a loss of 19 cents a share, from $328.7 million, or a loss of 21 cents a share, a year earlier.

For its second quarter, Snap expects to report revenue between $1.23 billion and $1.26 billion, compared with analysts’ expectations of $1.22 billion, according to StreetAccount. Snap said adjusted EBITDA would fall between $15 million and $45 million, compared with Wall Street expectations of $15.5 million.

Snap reported 422 million daily active users (DAUs) in the first quarter, up 10% year over year. The company expects to report about 431 million DAUs in its second quarter, compared to the 430 million expected by StreetAccount.

The company also provided a forecast for its cost structure for all of 2024. Snap said quarterly infrastructure costs per DAU will fall between 83 cents and 85 cents for the rest of the year.

“We will continue to evaluate the levels of our infrastructure investments based on what is in the best long-term interest of our business,” Snap said.

Snap said the amount of time users spend watching content has grown each year, largely due to engagement with Spotlight and Creator Stories. The company said time spent watching Spotlight, which aggregates content from users, increased 125% year-over-year.

In February, Snap announced it would cut 10% of its global workforce, or about 500 employees. The company said on Thursday that headcount and personnel costs would “increase modestly” for the rest of the year.