Benchmark downgrades ‘too far behind’ Snap to Hold after earnings

As previously reported, Benchmark analyst Mark Zgutowicz downgraded Snap (SNAP) to Hold from Buy and removed the firm’s price target following the company’s Q4 report. Despite competitive reach, Snap’s direct response ROAS, or Return On Ad Spend, "has never been competitive," the analyst tells investors in a research note. While Snap has attempted to manage ROAS during Apple’s (AAPL) ATT disruptions, the firm fears fingerprinting and probabilistic targeting face "significant risk" of being officially outlawed by Apple and Snap management’s delay in trying to "retrain its (machine-learning) models" leaves them "even further behind the social returns curve," Benchmark argues.