Snap Touches $100B Valuation After Morgan Stanley Upgrade

Snap  (SNAP) - Get Report shares wavered on Monday, at one point touching a $100 billion market value, after Morgan Stanley analysts upgraded Snapchat's parent to overweight from equal-weight.

"SNAP’s use cases/engagement continue to expand … with SNAP having recently disclosed 100 million-plus global Spotlight users (after only launching 3 months ago) and 250 million-plus global Maps users. Further, we estimate there are 300 million-plus global Discover users," Morgan Stanley analyst Brian Nowak said.

Snap shares early on jumped as much as 3% to $67.50. They have also fallen as much as 1.1% to $64.78. The stock at last check was off 0.6% to $65.16. 

Snap looks set for continued faster-than-expected growth in engagement, revenue and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, according to Nowak, who raised his price target to $80 a share from $50. 

A $100 billion valuation would make Snap a more valuable company than Target  (TGT) - Get Report and Lockheed Martin  (LMT) - Get Report, according to Bloomberg. The stock has doubled in about four months. 

Morgan Stanley expects Snap to achieve a 37% top-line compounded annual growth rate between 2021 and 2024, which is faster than most of its peers in the social-media space. 

Earlier this month, Snap forecast a first-quarter loss before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, even after its fourth-quarter results topped analyst estimates. 

The company said its first-quarter adjusted Lbitda would range $50 million to $70 million. Revenue is expected to be $720 million to $740 million, vs. $462 million in the year-earlier quarter.

Four analysts surveyed by FactSet on average had been expecting the Santa Monica, Calif., company to report first-quarter Ebitda of $258.3 million.