Shares of Snap Inc (NYSE:SNAP) in percentage terms over the past few months have seen more swings than a playground. Although the stock still has plenty left to prove, its rally on Tuesday does have some promising aspects, particularly through a trading lens.
Lest we forget, SNAP stock became public in March of this year, which is to say that it is still a young pup. In my experience, new initial public offerings (IPOs) need time to develop some sort of a character, i.e. it takes at least a couple of quarters of earnings for analyst to get their heads around the company and its prospects.
Through that lens, shares of SNAP Inc may now be nearing a point where analysts are starting to get a little more clarity.
To wit, yesterday, analysts at Barclays Plc issued a bullish note, saying that they believe the worst may be behind for SNAP Inc and that the company “is likely to get back on track in 2018.”
SNAP Stock Charts
Moving averages legend: red – 200 day, blue – 100 day, yellow – 50 day
For some perspective, let’s take a look at the price action in SNAP stock since its inception, i.e. since the initial public offering date earlier this year.
At first glance, it has been a one-way street lower for the stock and despite Tuesday’s pop the stock is far from being out of the woods. Looking at it a little closer however reveals that since the stock’s all-time lows in August it has found itself tracing out a potential bottoming pattern. Note that the November lows came in marginally higher than the August lows, thus printing a higher low.
A a result of the sideways slither the past few months, the stock’s yellow 50- and blue 100-day simple moving averages over the past few weeks have completely merged. Tuesday’s rally cleanly pushed the stock back above these two moving averages in one swoop and also marginally broke the stock past the purple-dotted diagonal line of resistance. So far so good.
Moving averages legend: blue – 8 day, yellow – 21 day
On the daily chart, we see that Tuesday’s rally in the stock — which, by the way, came in the face of broader market weakness — also pushed SNAP stock past a more near-term diagonal line of resistance and back into the upper half of the multi-month sideways pattern.
Barring any quick reversing of the Dec. 5 rally SNAP stock now looks poised to move back toward the high teens, i.e. around the $17 mark where it would face the October highs. One step at a time.
Check out Anthony Mirhaydari’s Daily Market Outlook for Dec. 6.
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