Stock Market Today, Aug. 26: Snap Sued by Pennsylvania Over Addictive Features and Child Safety
Snap (NYSE:SNAP), a camera-first social platform with augmented reality and advertising, closed at $5.42, down 8.53%. Pennsylvania's attorney general sued Snap over Snapchat's design and child-safety claims. Investors are watching follow-up legal risk and product disclosures. Trading volume reached 64.4M shares, coming in about 53% above its three-month average of 42.0M shares. Snap IPO'd in 2017 and has fallen 78% since going public.
How the markets moved today
S&P 500 (SNPINDEX:^GSPC) closed at 7,675, down 0.04%, while the Nasdaq Composite (NASDAQINDEX:^IXIC) finished at 26,130, down 0.08%. Among internet content and information, digital advertising and social media peers, Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) closed at $576.14, up 1.07%, while Pinterest (NYSE:PINS) closed at $23.32, down 1.44%, showing mixed sentiment across ad-supported apps.
What this means for investors
Pennsylvania's attorney general sued Snap yesterday, claiming that Snapchat kept "young users compulsively engaged," while lacking necessary safety standards and guardrails for age-appropriate content. This lawsuit was filed less than one day before Meta Platforms agreed to pay a historic $17.1 billion settlement for similar issues with children using its social media platforms.
However, while Meta has been battling this lawsuit for months, Snap's situation is brand new, prompting the market to send its shares down 9% today. A.G. Dave Sunday specifically cited Snap's Snapstreaks (which can be restored with a payment), disappearing messages, infinite scrolling, and "T for teen" rating as some of the many issues in the complaint.
Snap stock remains an unprofitable company -- though it is getting closer to breakeven -- and continues to rely heavily upon stock-based compensation, diluting shareholder value over time. With sales growth slowing over the last three years, yesterday's lawsuit against Snap, and today's ruling against Meta, I'm just not interested in the social media stock today, regardless of its popularity. It may simply be a better app than a company.
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Josh Kohn-Lindquist has positions in Pinterest. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Meta Platforms and Pinterest. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
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