Spooked investors send Snap shares spiraling

The brass at Snap kept talking about “early days” af✨ter announcing disappointing results, but investors reacted as if the end was near.

Shares of Snapchat’s corporate parent plunged more than 17 percent in after-hours trading on Thursday, to about $11.40 per share, after the company reported a wider-than-expected loss on disappointing sales and user growth.

That left the fledgling stock more than 60 percent lower than its high of $29.44 per share — reached the day after Snap’s initial public offering on March 2 — and a third lower than its IPO price of $17 per share.

The Venice, Calif.-based compa🍰ny lost more money than Wall Street expected in the second quarter — 16 cents a share v🐼ersus an anticipated loss of 14 cents a share — while missing revenue predictions by 2.4 percent.

CEO Evan Spiegel didn’t address nagging questions about the threat from Facebook’s Instagram app, which has been steadily kno𓃲cking off Snapchat’s key features, including its colorful camera filters and its “stories” function that builds photo and🐬 video montages.

Spiegel and his team, meanwhile, insisted that it was “early ꦆdays” for promising new products like “Snap Map,” which allows users to see one another’s 🌄locations.

Likewise, 27-year-old Spiegel also promised that he and co-founder Bobby Murphy wouldn’t sell any of their 422 million Snap shares this year. The pair’s post-IPO lockup will expire Monday.

Snap reported revenue of $181.7 million, up 153 percentꦿ from a year ago but short of the $186.2 million anticipated by Wall Street.

But the number of daily active users drawn to Snap’s core product — its disapp🏅earing-message app — is what spooked investors. Snapchat’s DAUs came in at 173 million, an increase of 7.3 million over the first quarter’s 1🍃66 million. Analysts had been expecting DAUs to grow by 10 million.

The lack of momentum disturbed Needham’s Laura Martin, who has commented on Snap’s “inabili🍌ty to prevent ‘fast followers’ like Facebook from stealing💃 its best ideas.”

Indeed, by snapping u🌊p Snap features for itself, Facebook’s Instagram has grown to 25♈0 million DAUs — 45 percent more than Snapchat’s.

Pivotal’s Brian Wieser was one of the few analysts who considered Snap’s results “in line” with his forecast. But his target price of $9 per share suggests Spiegel’s coꦕmpany still has downside.