New York, Feb 23, 2026, 08:13 EST — Premarket
- Snap shares down about 1.4% in premarket trading, last at $5.07
- Morgan Stanley cuts its price target on Snap, keeps an Equal Weight rating
- Focus turns to the timing of Perplexity-related revenue and the next earnings update in late April
Shares of Snapchat owner Snap Inc (SNAP) fell about 1.4% in premarket trading on Monday after Morgan Stanley cut its price target on the company. The stock was last at $5.07, down 7 cents from Friday’s close. (Public)
The move lands as investors keep pressing Snap on a simple question: when do new revenue lines show up in a way that changes the story for the stock. Subscriptions and partnerships look promising on paper, but the market wants timing and margin.
A price target is a bank’s estimate of where a stock could trade over roughly the next 12 months. Cuts can sting most when risk appetite is thin, and U.S. index futures were lower on Monday on renewed tariff uncertainty. (Reuters)
Morgan Stanley analyst Brian Nowak kept an Equal Weight rating — a call for performance broadly in line with peers — even as he lowered his target to $6.50 from $9.50, according to his note. He wrote that Snap’s core business is doing better than expected, but investors need clarity on when the Perplexity agreement adds $400 million of “high-margin” revenue, with the companies still in negotiations. (TipRanks)
Snap and AI search startup Perplexity announced in November that Perplexity would pay Snap $400 million over a year, in cash and equity, as the integration rolls out globally, with revenue expected to start contributing in 2026. Snap CEO Evan Spiegel said the goal was to make AI “more personal, social, and fun,” while Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas said the company wanted to serve curiosity “directly where it occurs.” (Snap Investor Relations)
Snap’s latest earnings update showed why Wall Street keeps circling the rollout timeline. The company beat fourth-quarter revenue estimates but forecast first-quarter revenue of $1.50 billion to $1.53 billion, below analysts’ $1.55 billion, and said the outlook excluded Perplexity revenue because the companies had not agreed on a broader rollout. “The ads platform (of Snap) still has a long way to go in attracting big budgets from enterprise advertisers,” Emarketer analyst Max Willens said. (Reuters)
Last week Snap said its direct-revenue business hit a $1 billion annualized run rate — the current pace projected over a year — and total subscribers across its portfolio surpassed 25 million. The company plans to test a creator subscription feature in the U.S. starting Feb. 23, aimed at letting creators earn recurring income from fans. (Reuters)
Even a small analyst tweak can look big on a $5 stock. Snap shares have traded between $4.65 and $10.83 over the past 52 weeks, according to Stock Analysis data. (StockAnalysis)
But the downside case still leans on timing and execution. If partner revenue shows up later than expected, or subscription growth cools, the stock can stay trapped in a cycle of reacting to notes and incremental ad checks.
The next hard catalyst is the next set of results: Wall Street Horizon lists Snap’s next earnings date as April 28 after the market close, though it is marked unconfirmed. Investors will look for any sign that Perplexity payments are moving from headline to revenue. (Wallstreethorizon)
