Snapchat revives growth in Q1 beat with 190M users as share price spikes

Snapchat appears to have turned the corner after a year of flat or negative user growth thanks to a strong Q1 2019 earnings report. It reached 190 million daily active users, up 2 percent from 186 million in Q4 2018 but still down from 191 million a year ago, in part thanks to its newly reengineered Android app. Snap saw $320 million in revenue and -$0.10 non-GAAP EPS, beating Zack’s consensus estimates of $306 million and -$0.12 EPS, with revenue up 39 percent year-over-year.

One concern is Snapchat provided guidance of greater losses next quarter, ranging from $125 million to $150 million compared to this quarter’s $123 million. That’s because increased usage triggers higher Amazon AWS and Google Cloud bills for the company. This could delay Snapchat hitting profitibility, which Spiegel had set of goal of reaching by the end of 2019.

The strong beat on earnings led Snap’s share to climb about 5 percent in after hours trading to around $12.60 in after hours trading, after closing at $11.99 earlier today. That’s up from a low of $5.07 in December.

Snap managed to add users in all its markets, growing 1 million in North America, 1 million in Europe, and 2 million in the developing world where the Android app is critical. The 25 percent smaller, 20 percent faster Android app generated a 6 percent increase in Snaps sent from low-end Android devices in the first week after they upgraded.

One blemish on an otherwise powerful earnings report was that average revenue per use dropped below its Q3 2018 $0.85 level in Europe to $0.77. That may in part be due to usage increases spreading ad revenue thinner across users. But that’s a lucrative market where Snap will need to do better with advertisers.

Snap reiterated a stat shared at its big Partner Summit conference this month, which is that it now reaches 90% of all 13-24 year-olds and 75% of all 13-34 year-olds in the U.S. It claims that’s more 13-24 year olds in the US than Instagram. That stat could get advertisers to give Snapchat the time of day even if its its total user count isn’t over 1 billion monthlies like Instagram thanks to its international prominence.