Photo bomb-out

No disguising Snap disaster: down 17%

The brass at Snap kept talking about “early days” after announcing disappointing results, but investors reacted as if end times were approaching.

Shares of Snapchat’s corporate parent plunged more than 17 percent in afterhours trading on Thursday, to about $11.40 per share, after the company reported a wider-than-expected loss on disappointing sales and user growth.

That left the fledgling stock more than 60 percent lower than its high of $29.44 per share — reached the day after Snap’s initial public offering on March 2 — and a third lower than its IPO price of $17 per share.

The Venice, Calif.-basedcompany lost more money than Wall Street expected in the second quarter — 16 cents a share versus an anticipated loss of 14 cents a share — while missing revenue predictions by 2.4 percent.

CEO Evan Spiegel didn’t address nagging questions about the threat from Facebook’s Instagram app, which has been steadily knocking off Snapchat’s key features, including its colorful camera filters and its “stories” func- tion that builds photo and video montages.

Spiegel and his team, meanwhile, insisted that it was “early days” for promising new products like “Snap Map,” which allows users to see each other’s locations.

Likewise, the 27-year-old Spiegel also promised that he and fellow co-founder Bobby Murphy wouldn’t sell any of their 422 million Snap shares this year. The pair’s post-IPO lock-up will expire Monday.

Snap reported revenue of $181.7 million, up 153 percent from a year ago but short of the $186.2 million anticipated by Wall Street.

But the number of daily active users drawn to Snap’s core product — its disappearing message app — is what spooked investors.

Snapchat’s DAUs came in at 173 million, an increase of 7.3 million over the first quarter’s 166 million. Meanwhile, analysts had been expecting DAUs to grow by 10 million.

The lack of momentum disturbed Needham’s Laura Martin, who has commented on Snap’s “inability to prevent ‘fast followers’ like Facebook from stealing its best ideas.”