Tech

Snap closes at all-time low after warning investors of 'decelerating' ad revenue

Key Points
  • The stock shed 21.9 percent from its Tuesday close.
  • The company behind popular disappearing message app Snapchat, warned investors that its revenue growth rate would "decelerate substantially" in the subsequent quarter.
  • Snapchat ad prices — excluding its Story ads — dropped 65 percent year over year in the first quarter.
Snap briefly hits all-time low after earnings
VIDEO0:5800:58
Snap briefly hits all-time low after earnings

Snap fell to a new all-time low Wednesday, a day after a crucial earnings miss.

Shares closed at $11.03 after seeing the stock's lowest ever open. The stock shed 21.9 percent from its Tuesday close of $14.13.

The company behind popular disappearing message app Snapchat, warned investors that its revenue growth rate would "decelerate substantially" in the subsequent quarter, dragged lower largely by weaker ad revenue.

Snapchat ad prices — excluding its Story ads — dropped 65 percent year over year in the first quarter after the company switched to an automated "programmatic" auction-based system from a direct sales method.

Snap is also reeling from an unsuccessful redesign of its Snapchat app — and analysts are predicting more pain ahead.

The redesign has "created a number of challenges, which may prove difficult to overcome," Evercore's Anthony DiClemente wrote in a note — especially as Snapchat faces increasing pressure from Facebook and Instagram's lookalike features.

The overhaul, announced in November and rolled out in subsequent months, separates paid publisher content from user content. The change has dinged ad revenue, relegating publisher content to an entirely separate and largely avoidable section of the app.

Cramer: Snap's conference call was like SNL parody
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Cramer: Snap's conference call was like SNL parody

Snap has more recently hinted at reversing some of those changes, following complaints of a confusing and cluttered interface and difficulty finding celebrity posts.

As of Wednesday's close, Snap was down 19 percent since announcing the redesign and nearly 50 percent from its 52-week high.

"Internet companies demonstrating revenue reacceleration tend not to meaningfully underperform in the following quarter," DiClemente said. "Unfortunately, SNAP's 4Q reacceleration in trends — and associated 4Q post-earnings stock pop — proved only temporary."

— CNBC's Michelle Castillo contributed to this report.

Disclosure: CNBC parent NBCUniversal is an investor in Snap.