Snap Turns a Q3 Profit, but Shares Fall on Light Revenue and Users

Snap, the parent of Snapchat, reported a third-quarter net income of $56 million on Wednesday, November 4, 2026, compared with a loss of $104 million a year earlier, as revenue grew 14% to $1.72 billion. Investors focused instead on revenue and user counts that fell slightly short of forecasts. The stock was down 8.61% in after-hours trading at 5:09 p.m. ET, according to CappNotes, after rising 5.90% during the regular session. StockStory reported the shares fell 8.5% to $5.41 right after the report.

Results vs. expectations

Reported figures are from Snap's press release, except daily users and ARPU, which are as reported by StockStory and Briefs. The revenue estimate is from LSEG and the user and adjusted EBITDA estimates are from StreetAccount, according to Briefs. Free cash flow was $164 million, up from $93 million, the company said.

Snap CEO Evan Spiegel said in the release that "AI is becoming a significant advantage for our teams and advertising platform."

Outlook and a change in how Snap counts users

Snap said it would discuss its fourth-quarter outlook on its earnings call and in its investor letter. Briefs reported the guidance as revenue of $1.95 billion to $1.99 billion and adjusted EBITDA of $490 million to $525 million, roughly in line with analysts' forecasts.

The company also said that, starting with its first-quarter 2027 report, it plans to use monthly active users as its main audience number instead of daily users, and to stop reporting regional user and ARPU figures.

What it means for investors

Snap's quarter shows how a stock can fall even when profits improve sharply. For a social media company, user growth is the fuel for future ad sales, so a miss on daily users, even a small one, can outweigh a jump in profit. Revenue per user matched forecasts, which means advertisers are paying more per person while the audience grows more slowly.

The planned switch to monthly users is worth watching: changing the headline metric can make year-over-year comparisons harder. Our guide on how to read an earnings report covers which numbers to compare, and what is market cap explains how company size shapes a stock's moves. For another after-hours report from the ad market, see our story on AppLovin's third quarter.

This article is for information only and is not investment advice.