Snap, the parent of Snapchat, had a great first two days on the stock market, only to be followed by two terrible ones. Shares quickly tumbled to beneath $22, a more than 11 percent drop in morning trading.
This means that most investors are already losing money on the social media company. Snap opened Thursday at $24 per share.
It is still above its $17 IPO price, but that’s mainly relevant for the exclusive club of high-net-worth individuals and institutional investors who were allowed to buy into the IPO. Those lucky folks are still seeing 25 percent gains.
And with a market cap of roughly $30 billion (fully diluted), Snap is still worth significantly more than its valuation prior to the IPO, or roughly $20 billion (fully diluted). The dilution is important because there are a lot of stock options and other shares that will be added to the circulation.
“It’s a strong company, but went very far on voting rights,” said Max Wolff, market strategist at 55 Capital. He’s referring to the fact that Snap’s newest shareholders won’t have voting power, a break from tradition.
Not only because of the lack of voting rights, but also because insiders sold shares in the IPO, “investors are tolerating things that they don’t usually tolerate,” said Kathleen Smith, principal at Renaissance Capital. “Expectations are very high for the company.”
While its governance has raised eyebrows, some are also skeptical about Snapchat’s slowed user growth. Instagram copied its “stories” feature and wound up stealing some of its momentum.
Analysts have been largely negative about the company and it seems like today’s investors are taking note. Most have given Snap a “sell” or “hold” rating.
Social media companies have experienced mixed results in the public markets. Twitter’s IPO was well-received, but its stock price was ultimately met with a lot of volatility. Facebook had a difficult first few months as a public company, but has grown substantially over time.