Snap plunges 30% after CEO warns company will miss revenue and earnings estimates, slow hiring

Snap will miss its own targets for revenue and adjusted earnings in the current quarter, CEO Evan Speigel warned on Monday in a note to employees.

The social media company will also slow hiring through the end of the year as it looks to manage expenses, Speigel wrote. Part of the letter was filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

“Today we filed an 8-K, sharing that the macro environment has deteriorated further and faster than we anticipated when we issued our quarterly guidance last month,” Spiegel wrote in the note. “As a result, while our revenue continues to grow year-over-year, it is growing more slowly than we expected at this time.”

In April, Snap reported first-quarter earnings that missed Wall Street expectations for sales and profit. At the time, the company said it expected between 20% and 25% year-over-year growth in revenue. It forecast adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of between $0 and $50 million.

“We believe it is now likely that we will report revenue and adjusted EBITDA below the low end of the guidance range we provided for this quarter,” Spiegel wrote in Monday’s update.

Spiegel said Snap will continue to recruit new employees, but will slow its pace of hiring for the rest of the year. He still expects Snap to hire 500 new employees before the end of the year, according to the note. The company hired about 2,000 employees over the last 12 months.

The maker of the Snapchat app is facing rising inflation and interest rates, supply chain shortages, labor disruptions and platform policy changes like Apple’s iPhone privacy feature, according to Spiegel. There’s also a negative impact from the war in Ukraine.

“Our most meaningful gains over the coming months will come as a result of improved productivity from our existing team members,” Spiegel wrote.

As of Monday’s close, Snap shares are down over 50% for the year, while the S&P 500 has fallen 17% over that stretch. It fell nearly 20% in extended trading on Monday after the company’s annoucnement.