Snap prepares for brutal day on Wall Street following latest earnings disappointment

Snap could crash through its all-time low today when trading opens after another earnings report that raised questions about the company’s future.

In after-hours trading, Snap’s stock was down $2.70 per share — or 19.14 percent — to $11.43. That would beat the $11.83 it hit back in August, and is well below the company’s $17 IPO price and the euphoric high in March 2017 of $28.03.

If there was any good news yesterday, it was that sales for the quarter were $230.7 million, up 54 percent from the same period a year ago. And the company said it was making more per user. Still, those revenue numbers were short of the $244.5 million Wall Street analysts had expected.

Worse, the company acknowledged that its app redesign had been bumpy.

“Our redesign created some headwinds in our revenue this quarter by disrupting user behavior and creating some apprehension among our advertising partners,” CEO and cofounder Evan Spiegel said on a conference call with investors after earnings were reported. “We believe that our current path forward will address both issues and that our advertising business has benefitted and will continue to benefit from the tough decisions we make in order to create and maintain a positive and healthy environment for our community over the long-term.”

Back in February, investors were feeling more optimistic after an earnings report that was less bad than expected. But now that optimism has washed away.

Thanks to its IPO in March 2017, Snap still has $1.8 billion in cash in the bank. But it also used $232 million in cash to fund its operations during the last three-month period. And its net loss for the quarter, not counting stock option expenses, rose from $209 million one year ago to $386 million.

None of these are very cheerful indicators.