Pinterest Inc (PINS.N) and Snap Inc (SNAP.N) shares fell 18% on Friday after their quarterly results alarmed investors over sluggish digital ad spending.
Marketers stay with the biggest companies in an uncertain economy, as Alphabet Inc (GOOGL.O) and Meta Platforms Inc (META.O) showed earlier this week.
Pinterest estimated second-quarter revenue growth below Wall Street projections late Thursday as it grapples with ad spending declines in an uncertain market.
Snapchat owner Snap missed analysts’ revenue projections late Thursday, blaming changes to its advertising platform for lower ad demand. In addition, it cautioned next quarter’s performance may miss Wall Street’s estimates.
Snap claimed it improved ad relevancy, sometimes resulting in fewer “actions,” such as people touching advertisements.
“Aside from Snap’s internal issues, the competitive landscape remains daunting, and we believe the darkest days of this downturn are ahead of us,” Monness Crespi Hardt analyst Brian White said in a Friday client note.
Pinterest is $15 billion, and Snap is $13 billion, down $6 billion.
In an email, Ihor Dusaniwsky, managing director of predictive analytics at S3 Partners, said that Friday’s selloff gave short sellers betting on Pinterest and Snap $240 million in mark-to-market profits.
Snap saw 12 analysts lower their price forecasts, while Pinterest had seven. However, after Facebook and Instagram, owner Meta Platforms forecasted quarterly revenue above analyst expectations on Wednesday, shares rose 13%. Likewise, ad revenues were stronger than expected in Alphabet’s quarterly earnings on Wednesday.