Snap Inc

Snap made 45 million dollars in profit in the fourth quarter, up from just 9 million a year earlier, on revenue of 1.72 billion dollars. Cash generation is the bigger story. Free cash flow for the full year doubled to 437 million dollars from 219 million. The company also sits on 2.9 billion dollars in cash and just authorized a 500 million dollar buyback of its own shares.

Snapchat Plus subscribers jumped 71% to 24 million paying users, pushing revenue outside of advertising up 62% to 232 million dollars in the quarter. Total advertisers on the platform grew 28% year over year. And profit margins are widening, with gross margin hitting 59%, up 4 points from the prior quarter. Snap is slowly building income that does not swing with the ad market.

One good quarter does not fix the full year. Snap still lost 460 million dollars in 2025 and has never posted a profitable year in its history. Revenue grew 11% for the year, which is respectable but slower than the giants it competes against. Instagram and TikTok keep pulling attention away from Snapchat.

Snap pays employees heavily in stock, which quietly shrinks each shareholder's slice of the company. Management openly said the 500 million dollar buyback exists to offset only a portion of that dilution, not all of it. Founders also control the vast majority of voting power, so regular shareholders have almost no say in decisions.