Snapchat parent Snap Inc reported slightly better-than-expected earnings Tuesday afternoon. Its shares rose in after-hours trading. Investors seemed pleased by the combination of good results and a share buyback announcement.
Investors were buoyed by the announcement of a new share repurchase program of up to $500 million. These repurchases offset the dilutive effects of Snap’s substantial share-based compensation. The company said in its investor letter that it took this step because of, “the strength of our balance sheet, our progress toward sustained free cash flow generation, and our desire to opportunistically manage our share count for the benefit of our long term shareholders.”
Key to Snap’s performance are renewed ad technology and a new app layout that is a “simplified version of Snapchat organized into three core experiences focused on communicating with friends, using the camera, and watching entertaining content,” the letter said. Early results are promising.
Revenue for the third quarter reached $1.37 billion, exceeding analyst expectations for $1.36 billion, according to FactSet. Revenue was up 15% in the quarter, and total expenses fell by 1%. Earnings came in at a loss of nine cents a share versus the consensus for a 14-cent loss.
Snap’s adjusted Ebitda—short for earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization—came in at $132 million, up 229% for the year, crushing both previous guidance and analyst expectations for $93 million. Profitability is improving, with net loss reduced by 58% year on year.
Daily active users hit 443 million in the quarter, ahead of analyst expectations by two million, and up 9% on the year. Another key user metric, average revenue per user, was $3.10, in line with analyst projections, and up 6% on the year.
Snapchat’s user growth is coming disproportionally from regions outside North America and Europe. This “rest of world” grouping has the lowest revenue per user, and that could become an issue down the road. User growth in the most lucrative region, North America, has basically flatlined. Snap may have saturated North America.
The new ad technology stack is helping with this. With a renewed focus on small and medium-size business advertisers, the total number of active advertisers has more than doubled in the past year. Direct response ads have been crucial in ad revenue growth. Direct response ads contain “calls-to-action” that encourage viewers to take some action, like download a coupon.
But ads aren’t the only story at Snap. It has a subscription service, and AR products including Spectacles, its AR glasses. This “Other Revenue” line has more than doubled year-over-year.
Revenue guidance for the fourth quarter fell a bit short—analysts had been expecting $1.55 billion, but Snap guided to $1.54 billion at the midpoint. Adjusted Ebitda guidance also trailed analyst consensus by a hair.
Snap shares were up around 7% at $11.61 in after-hours trading following the release.
