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A woman wears 'Snapchat Spectacles' on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), March 2, 2017 in New York City. Snap Inc. shares opened at 24 dollars per share on the NYSE.
Drexel Hamilton analyst Brian White is the most bullish Apple analyst, and he loves Snap, too.He says in a note distributed to clients on Friday that the Snapchat parent company presents an "excellent buying opportunity" at its current price and that the company "reminds us of Apple in its younger days."
White has the highest price target for Apple at $202, out of 52 analysts covering the stock, according to estimates compiled by Bloomberg. White's price target for Apple would value the company at over $1 trillion.
So comparing the disappearing chat app company to Apple is a huge compliment for White. Snap has had a rough few days after its first earnings report missed Wall Street expectations and sent the stock crashing more than 20%.
Here's why Snap reminds White of Apple:
We view Snap as an original in the camera App world and this authenticity will be tough for competitors to successfully replicate in the eyes of millennials. Moreover, Snap fosters a culture of creativity and a management team that holds the long-term vision necessary to nurture the innovation engine that we believe can create long-lasting value for shareholders.
One way that Snap resembles Apple in its early days is that Snap CEO Evan Spiegel is a product impresario, like late Apple founder Steve Jobs was.
Snap is also pushing into fashionable hardware, a space that Apple practically owns.
One of Snap's biggest challenges at the moment is slowing user growth. When Spiegel was asked about it during Snap's earnings call, Spiegel responded by talking about his product philosophy.
Spiegel said:
So, ultimately, I think the way that we try to help people understand how we think about daily active user growth is really through the lens of creativity and creation, because we built our entire business on creation. ...
So the last thing I will say is that the way we talk about DAU growth in our Company really as it pertains to creativity is about removing friction from the creative process. So we've talked about Lenses which I think are a great product. And the reason why I think that that prompted such an explosion in creativity is because it really lowered the barrier to creation on our service, because people enjoy looking like a puppy and things like that.
Drexel gives Snap a "buy" rating and a price target of $30.