Snap Stock Sways in Monday Trading

Snap was one of the biggest initial public offerings of 2017, but Wall Street seems to be walking away from the camera company with every new quarterly report the owner of Snapchat puts out.

Share price at Snap rocked in both directions in another week of trading this Monday after restrictions on employee stock sales were lifted causing a sell-off, according to Financial Times. FT also reported major investors including Temasek, Jana Partners, and Third Point had sold their shares of Snapchat.

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Minsk, Belarus – February 26, 2017: Snapchat logo on puzzle. Social network. Handmade. Acril painted. (AlesiaKan / Shutterstock.com)

On Monday, Snap initially dropped 4.7% to a new low of $11.28; Snap bounced back to recover more than 10 percent in intraday trading. However, by the afternoon, the shares were up by only 5 percent, back above the $12 mark. It is important to note the company sold shares in its initial public offering in March at $17.

Last Friday, Snap’s stock price fell by 14%, following after-market results on Thursday that were below even Wall Street’s reduced expectations. Then, it was revealed Dan Loeb’s hedge fund, Third Point, had sold all of their 2.25 million shares in Snap last quarter in June and instead bought more shares of Facebook.

Major concerns center around Snapchat user growth, as the company struggles to compete with Facebook’s social messaging apps. But, voicing their confidence, Snap co-founders Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy have promised not to sell any of their 400 million shares this year. Instead, the co-founders argue they “believe deeply” in the success of Snap.