It was a chilly Monday for Snowflake Inc. (SNOW) shareholders. The stock took a dive, dropping over 9% as the broader market wobbled and investors grew a bit nervous. The main event everyone's waiting for? The company's fourth-quarter earnings report, due out after the bell on Wednesday, February 25th.
Think of it as the financial world's version of a big test. Investors will be grading Snowflake on a few key subjects: revenue growth, operating margins, and—most importantly—what management says about the future. Everyone wants to know if enterprise customers are finally ready to start spending on data and AI tools again, or if the belt-tightening continues.
The Analysts' Pre-Game Show
In the days leading up to the report, Wall Street's analysts weren't exactly sending valentines. Instead, they were busy with their calculators, trimming their price forecasts across the board. The interesting part? They're still telling clients to buy the stock; they just think it's worth a bit less than they did a month ago. It's like your real estate agent saying your house is still a great buy, but maybe not for the half-million you were hoping for.
Here's the rundown of who cut what:
Stifel's Brad Reback (Buy rating) cut his target to $225 from $280. BTIG's Gray Powell (Buy) went to $235 from $312. TD Cowen's Bill Katz (Buy) lowered his to $270 from $300, a move mirrored by Citigroup's Tyler Radke (Buy).
KeyBanc's Eric Heath (Overweight) trimmed his forecast to $235 from $285. Oppenheimer's Ittai Kidron (Outperform) reduced his to $250 from $295. Mizuho's Gregg Moskowitz (Outperform) cut to $220 from $285, and Goldman Sachs' Kash Rangan (Buy) lowered his to $246 from $286.
That's a lot of numbers, but the story is simple: expectations are being reset. The analysts still believe in the long-term story, but they're adjusting for a market that's become more cautious about growth and spending.
A Strategic Pivot for Its AI Tool
Separately, and perhaps trying to change the conversation, Snowflake made a product announcement on Monday. The company said it's expanding the reach of its AI-powered coding assistant, called Cortex Code.
Originally, this tool was designed to help developers working within Snowflake's own data platform. Now, the company is letting it off the leash. The CLI (Command Line Interface) version will now support popular external data systems, starting with dbt and Apache Airflow. The idea is to deliver "secure, context-aware AI assistance" no matter where a developer's data lives.
Perhaps more importantly for the business model, Snowflake is now offering Cortex Code through a standalone monthly subscription. This means development teams can use the AI tool even if they aren't running their core data workloads on Snowflake's platform. It's a clever move to monetize its AI software beyond its core customer base and tap into a wider market.
For investors, the big question is whether strategic moves like this can offset the near-term concerns about customer spending. The stock's price action on Monday suggested the market is squarely focused on the earnings risk for now. Snowflake shares were down 9.52%, closing at $156.08.
