Snap results put Facebook in an 'even darker light' - Wedbush analyst Dan Ives
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Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said Friday that standout earnings from Snap (NYSE:SNAP) put a disastrous quarterly report from Facebook parent Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:FB) in "an even darker light."
In an interview with CNBC, the Wedbush Securities managing director argued that strong results from social-media competitors SNAP and Pinterest (NYSE:PINS) spotlighted Facebook's weak results, which now seem more specific to the company than an industry-wide trend.
"Coming after Snap and in terms of what we're seeing across the board, I think it makes you feel more nervous about Facebook from a growth perspective," he said.
"They can change their name every week if they want, but it comes down to digital advertising and that's something that continues to really decline as well as [subscribers]," the Wedbush analyst added.
Late Wednesday, Meta Platforms (FB) announced a quarterly profit that missed expectations. It also issued a weak revenue forecast for the current quarter.
Dragged down by the quarterly update, FB plunged 26% on Thursday, destroying over $200B in market cap in a single day. The decline also dragged down much of the social-media sector. SNAP plunged nearly 24% in sympathy with FB, while PINS dropped 10%.
However, both SNAP and PINS have turned around in Friday's early trading after their own earnings reports. SNAP climbed 52% in intraday action, while PINS advanced 7%.
Snap (SNAP) easily breezed by expectations with its quarterly profit, more than doubling the amount predicted by market analysts. Revenue climbed 43% to $1.3B, surpassing projections by $100M.
Ives reported that analysts feared a "complete disaster" from SNAP's results, but they showed "the exact opposite," a fact that created a stark comparison with what Meta (FB) put out the day before.
"It really put a dark cloud over Facebook which was really a black-eye quarter for a company," he asserted.

For a more bullish perspective on FB in the wake of its earnings news, read analysis by SA contributor Jonathan Weber, who thinks "the market has lost its mind."