Snap Inc (NYSE: SNAP) stock climbed toward to its highest level in more than a year in after-hours trading Tuesday after second-quarter results of the social media company topped street estimates.

The parent company of Snapchat said it had 203 global daily active users (DAUs) in Q2 2019, compared to 190 million in the first quarter. Analysts were expecting the company to report 191.7 million global daily active users in the quarter.

Gross margin grew 46%, compared to the earlier-year period when gross margin growth stood at 30%. Shares of the Santa Monica-based tech firm rallied 12.27% to change hands at $16.65 apiece in after-hours trading.

The stock has risen more than 201% so far this year after hitting a record low at the end of 2018 amid stiff competition from Instagram, which is owned by Facebook Inc (NASDAQ: FB).

SNAP Earnings & Outlook

Snap had a net loss of $255 million, or $0.06 per share, compared with the second-quarter of the previous year when the company announced a net loss of $0.14 per share. Analysts had forecast a loss of $0.10 per share in the quarter, according to figures compiled by Refinitiv.

Revenue came in at $388 million, up 48% from $262 million in the same period a year ago. Refinitiv consensus was for revenue of $359 million, up 38% on a year-over-year basis.

Looking in the current quarter, Snap hopes to post net loss of $60 million to $85 million on revenue of between $410 million to $435 million.

Snap Executive Comments

“The growth in our community, engagement, and revenue is the result of several transitions we completed over the past 18 months,” said Snap Chief Executive Officer Evan Spiegel in a press release. “We look forward to building on our momentum and making significant ongoing progress in each of these areas.”

“We continue to make significant progress in driving down our underlying unit costs over time, including the cost to deliver a Snap, the cost to deliver an impression, and other key drivers of infrastructure costs. In Q2, improvements in user activity were fully offset by these infrastructure efficiency efforts as we continue to prioritize scaling the business efficiently in order to drive positive operating leverage,” commented Snap CFO Derek Andersen.

Snap Inc Profile

Snap, which refers to itself as a camera company, has one of the most popular social networking apps, Snapchat, in developed regions such as North America and Europe. The firm has approximately 158 million daily active users.

Snap generates nearly all of its revenue from advertising with 88% coming from the U.S. The firm is headquartered in Venice, California. – Warrior Trading News