Why Investors Are Worried About Japan's Bond Market
Japan's central bank — the Bank of Japan — seen as a 'whale' of the domestic bond market because it owns more than half the nation's sovereign notes, has been gradually trimming its balance sheet and scaling back its bond purchases. But the question is: Who else is interested in buying?
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After Recent Earnings, What's the Investment Thesis for Snap Now?
Key Points Snap's slower second-quarter growth compared to its peers includes an important footnote. The company's willingness to perpetually evolve and improve its app is no minor detail. Some of these efforts will pay off. Snap is just going to need a bit of time to prove its approach is increasingly marketable. 10 stocks we like better than Snap › It's been a rough past few days for Snap (NYSE: SNAP) shareholders. The Snapchat parent's stock is trading down more than 20% since posting its second-quarter numbers last Tuesday, in fact, and still testing lower lows. The company's revenue miss clearly rattled investors. The question is, is yet another disappointing quarter enough of a reason to finally give up on Snap? Or is this stock's recent setback a chance to step into a compelling story at an even better price? Snap's second-quarter numbers Snap's Snapchat app is a social media platform, albeit a very different one than Meta Platforms' Facebook or X (formerly known as Twitter). Namely, Snapchat doesn't feature a "news" feed like X and Facebook do in the center of their user interfaces. Snapchat's focus is instead on messaging and sharing pictures specifically with friends. The core business is still ultimately the same as any social media site's, though: advertising. More users and usage of the Snapchat app means more opportunities to monetize the platform. And Snap did a fair amount of business during the three-month stretch ending in June. The top line of $1.34 billion for the recently ended quarter was up 9% year over year, lifted by a 9% increase in the average number of daily users (469 million) and 7% growth in average monthly users (932 million). Most of that user growth took shape outside of Europe and North America. Although the company remains in the red with a reported net loss of $262.6 million, or $0.16 per share, free cash flow swung from a negative $73.4 million to a positive $23.8 million this time around. Problem? The analyst community was calling for a top line of $1.35 billion and a per-share loss of $0.15, matching the year-ago quarter's loss. Sales growth guidance for the third quarter (now underway) was in line with estimates, but investors also noticed that these numbers still trail those being reported by Meta and other social media companies. In addition, "an issue related to our ad platform" crimped both the top and bottom lines by underpricing Snap's ad inventory. A company as developed as Snap shouldn't face such self-created glitches. Nevertheless, this stock's subsequent setback is far more of an opportunity than an omen. (Much) more to like in the long run than not Snap's got plenty to figure out. Even while the technical glitch was temporary, it's concerning that user growth has outright stalled in North America and Europe, where average per-user revenue is highest. It's also simply not growing as briskly as its rival platforms are, and perhaps never will. As RBC Capital Markets analyst Brad Erickson noted, last quarter's numbers "will continue to reinforce the bear case that Snap cannot break out of being a smaller ad platform lacking the ability to durably grow its direct response business in line with the market." Just don't lose sight of the bigger, longer-term picture. And that picture is still pretty bullish for a handful of reasons. One of those reasons is Snap's never-ending willingness to learn from its past failures as well as past successes, and then evolve as merited. Case in point: In June, the company announced the augmented reality glasses it's been working on for a while now will be ready for launch sometime in 2026. Its first go-around with "Spectacles" back in 2016 ended up being a bit of a disaster. But those glasses were only a camera, and AR technology has come a long way since then. Undeterred by its previous flop, Snap's next shot at stand-alone hardware is a reasonable risk. In the meantime, the company's doing something far more practical by adding artificial intelligence-powered tools (including AI-generated ads) to its advertisers' toolkit. Its relatively new Sponsored "Snaps" are also producing 20% more conversions than ordinary ads. Perhaps the overarching argument for betting on beaten-down SNAP shares despite them going nowhere since their 2021/2022 rout is that Snapchat still has a long growth path ahead of it. It's difficult to quantify, or even see. But the world is growing weary of the toxicity on Facebook and X. Consumers are increasingly looking for alternative online gathering places where they're in control of what they're exposed to. They're finding less-crowded and more decentralized corners of the web on platforms like Discord, Bluesky, and yes, Snapchat. Indeed, the Snapchat app lends itself to providing what its biggest cohort of users -- the Gen Z crowd, ages 16 to 30 -- craves to the point of demanding it: advertiser authenticity. According to recent research from Target's retail media network Roundel, 73% of Gen Z regularly watch influencers' shopping videos. That's more than 40% above the average. And website hosting service provider WPEngine says 82% of Gen Z is more likely to trust a company that uses real people (like Snapchat's creators) rather than paid actors in its ads. Ads on Facebook and X tend to lack this authenticity, while Snapchat's heavily featured ads from the platform's well-followed creators is about as authentic as it gets. Focus on the long-term marketability of the business It's tough to get excited about buying into any promising business while that business's results are lackluster, and Snap's are. The stock's lingering lethargy isn't helping the bull thesis either. Just bear in mind something that Warren Buffett said long ago that still applies in the modern market environment: "If you aren't thinking about owning a stock for 10 years, don't even think about owning it for 10 minutes." Snapchat's got the right idea and formula. It's just going to take a while to prove it. It's going to take even longer for the market to fully see it. On the other hand, as other investors increasingly do see it, they'll at least start pricing in Snap's promising future. That's why it might be wiser to go ahead and wade into a position now while nobody else is thinking about doing the same. As Buffett has also said, "Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful." You can control your total risk just by adjusting the size of the Snap stake you take on. Should you buy stock in Snap right now? Before you buy stock in Snap, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Snap wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $663,630!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $1,115,695!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 1,071% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 185% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of August 13, 2025 James Brumley has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Meta Platforms and Target. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. After Recent Earnings, What's the Investment Thesis for Snap Now? was originally published by The Motley Fool Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
What To Expect From Palo Alto Networks's (PANW) Q2 Earnings
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Mr D.I.Y. Group (M) Berhad Second Quarter 2025 Earnings: Misses Expectations
Explore Mr D.I.Y. Group (M) Berhad's Fair Values from the Community and select yours Mr D.I.Y. Group (M) Berhad (KLSE:MRDIY) Second Quarter 2025 Results Key Financial Results Revenue: RM1.21b (up 1.5% from 2Q 2024). Net income: RM158.6m (up 2.2% from 2Q 2024). Profit margin: 13% (in line with 2Q 2024). EPS: RM0.017 (up from RM0.016 in 2Q 2024). AI is about to change healthcare. These 20 stocks are working on everything from early diagnostics to drug discovery. The best part - they are all under $10bn in marketcap - there is still time to get in early. All figures shown in the chart above are for the trailing 12 month (TTM) period Mr D.I.Y. Group (M) Berhad Revenues and Earnings Miss Expectations Revenue missed analyst estimates by 4.9%. Earnings per share (EPS) also missed analyst estimates by 2.6%. Looking ahead, revenue is forecast to grow 8.4% p.a. on average during the next 3 years, compared to a 7.8% growth forecast for the Specialty Retail industry in Malaysia. Performance of the Malaysian Specialty Retail industry. The company's shares are down 2.5% from a week ago. Risk Analysis You should always think about risks. Case in point, we've spotted 1 warning sign for Mr D.I.Y. Group (M) Berhad you should be aware of. Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
