Snap slides after Evan Spiegel sold shares and Citigroup downgraded the company

pulse

February 20, 2018 4:02 PM

Snap's stock price is falling Tuesday. Citi Group issued a downgrade of the stock, and before that, Evan Spiegel had sold $50 million worth of shares.

Snap fell as much as almost 6% Tuesday, hit by a one-two punch.
CEO Evan Spiegel sold $50 million worth of shares on February 14th.
Citigroup downgraded the stock, pointing to declining app reviews.

Snap fell as much as 6% Tuesday after Citigroup downgraded the stock to sell from neutral and lowered its price target to $14 a share.

While Citi acknowledged that the redesign could have a positive long-term impact on the photo-sharing company, it cited an app review from App Annie showing that, since November, Snap's apps reviews have declined. Five star ratings went from 2.1% to 1.3% in that span, and one star ratings went from 28% to 86%.

"While the recent redesign of [Snap's] flagship app could produce positive long-term benefits, [there is a] significant jump in negative app reviews since the redesign was pushed out a few weeks, which could result in a decline in users and user engagement, and could negatively impact financial results,"

Tuesday's selling may also be related to CEO Evan Spiegel selling $50 million worth of shares, or about 1% of his holdings, last week. The share-sale was his first since Snap went public a year ago.

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