UBS hikes Snap to Buy and raises price target to $24 on ‘momentum’

Analysts at UBS have raised Snap Inc (NASDAQ:SNAP) to a Buy and its price target to $24, saying the company is on track for strong “momentum” heading into the start of 2020.  The Swiss bank had a Neutral rating on Snap, the parent company of social media app Snapchat, with a $16 price target. The company’s stock recently rose by 3% to $18.84 a share in pre-market trading.  “Inline with recent quarters, we see SNAP exiting 2019 with positive business momentum in terms of both ad revenue and user growth and expect such momentum to persist in 2020,” its analysts wrote.  READ: Snap beats Street's 3Q revenue and profit estimates “While the stock is up 21% over the past month and certainly not a contrarian idea to upgrade at these levels, we see a renewed management team focused on driving a mix of user growth (especially the Android refresh) and ad monetization that could produce multiyear revenue growth even above our newly raised forecasts,” they added. The analysts also pointed out that data from the UBS Evidence Lab Social Media survey of more than 2,000 US internet users indicate "strong YoY growth in usage (particularly outside of Snap's core demo) and ad conversion.” Contact the author: patrick@proactiveinvestors.com Follow him on Twitter @PatrickMGraham