Why I'm Buying Snap After Harsh Layoff Notice

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On Wednesday morning, Snap (SNAP) CEO Evan Spiegel released a written letter to his employees:

"Today we are announcing changes that will impact approximately 1,000 team members at Snap, including 16% of our full time employees, in addition to closing more than 300 open roles. This is an incredibly difficult decision, and I am deeply sorry to the colleagues who will be leaving us."

Spiegel has stated in the past that his social media firm was at a pivotal point in its corporate history and needed to focus on reaching and sustaining profitable growth.

In the heart of the letter, Spiegel wrote, "As a result of these changes, we expect to reduce our annualized cost base by more than $500 million by the second half of 2026, helping to establish a clearer path to net-income profitability."

Spiegel then got down to business:

"While these changes are necessary to realize Snap's long-term potential, we believe that rapid advancements in artificial intelligence enable our teams to reduce repetitive work, increase velocity, and better support our community, partners and advertisers. We have already witnessed small squads leveraging AI tools to drive meaningful progress across several important initiatives, including Snapchat+, enhanced ad platform performance, and efficiency improvements in our Snap Lite infrastructure."

So, yes, AI is largely taking these jobs.

While that may be awful for labor markets and is probably just plain lousy for the human race, we will see more of this. This kind of transition will make corporations more efficient and probably more investable. The shares of SNAP traded up 8.7% on Tuesday and are up sharply again on Wednesday morning. SNAP trades at 12-times forward looking earnings and does possess an "OK" balance sheet. The firm will report in about three weeks' time.

Nvidia Boosts Infleqtion

On Tuesday, Nvidia (NVDA) expanded further its portfolio of open artificial intelligence models, unveiling "Ising" which has been developed specifically for the expansion of quantum computing capabilities.

All of the well-known quantum computing stocks popped on the news. Nvidia specifically mentioned $10K Portfolio holding Infleqtion ( as an early adopter in the deployment of the Ising model. INFQ shares traded up 12.2% on Tuesday and are up nicely on Wednesday morning.

Other News

Several other $10K Portfolio names are in the news on Wednesday morning. Here's the rundown:

SoFi Technologies (SOFI) : On Tuesday morning, analyst Will Nance of Goldman Sachs reiterated his "hold" rating on SOFI, while taking his target price down to $20 from $25. Nance is rated at zero stars out of five at TipRanks. Over the past two years, his picks have only had a 40% success rate producing an average return of -14.8%. Not kidding.

Sidus Space (SIDU) : On Wednesday morning, Sidus Space announced the expansion of an existing agreement with Lonestar Data Holdings to build and deliver an additional StarVault orbital data storage payload. This amendment will expand the level of work done under the firm's ongoing relationship with Lonestar as StarVault transitions from early missions to sustained commercial deployment. The first StarVault payload is scheduled to launch as soon as this autumn aboard SIDU's LizzieSat-4.

Ondas Inc (ONDS) : On Wednesday morning, Ondas announced the official launch of the ONBERG Autonomous Systems, which is its joint venture with HD Advanced Technologies. HD Advanced technologies, in turn, is a subsidiary of Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG. The joint venture has commenced operations in Brandenburg an der Havel, Germany. This is being viewed as a significant step in Ondas' expansion strategy into Europe and its eventual mission to scale next-generation drone defense systems on a global scale.

Ocular Therapeutix (OCUL) : On Monday, analyst Yi Chen of HC Wainwright reiterated his "buy" rating on the shares of OCUL as well as his $21 target price. Chen is rated at zero stars out of five by TipRanks. Chen has a 35% success rate over two years, producing an average return of -2%.

Evolv Technologies (EVLV) : On Tuesday, analyst Shaul Eyal of TD Cowan reiterated his "buy" rating on the shares of EVLV as well as his $10 target price. Eyal is rated at five stars out of five by TipRanks. Eyal has a 47% success rate over two years, producing an average return of +16.1%.

Tuesday's Intentions vs Tuesday's Actual Trades

Intention: Buy to close 1 SOFI May 15 $18 call at or around the sale price of $1.01

Actual Trade: Bought 1 SOFI May 15 $18 call at $1.61

Intention: Buy to close 1 ONDS May 8 $10.50 call at or around the sale price of $0.60

Actual Trade: Bought 1 May 8 $10.50 call at $0.62

Wednesday's Intention

I am intrigued by the SNAP news. I really like (call me crazy) that a number of highly rated analysts beat up on the name earlier this week, but the shares are having another great day.

Intention: Purchase 50 shares of SNAP at or close to the last sale of $6.01

I do expect the shares to come in a little from here. The intention is to open a long position and add to it on short-term profit taking over the coming days.

Current Positions

Long 150 shares of SOFI at $15.988. Last sale: $18.37.

Long 125 shares of OCUL at $8.061. Last sale: $8.76.

Long 125 shares of ONDS at $9.4749. Last sale: $9.72.

Long 10 shares of (PLTR) at $145.03. Last sale: $138.93.

Long 15 shares of (RKLB) at $67.1653. Last sale: $73.15.

Long 25 shares of INFQ at $9.965. Last sale $14.60.

Long 75 shares of SIDU at $2.029. Last sale: $4.95.

Long 50 shares of EVLV at $6.0898. Last sale: $6.29.

Cash: $2,284.31

Portfolio Value: $10,880.72, +8.8% from inception.

At the time of publication, Guilfoyle was long SOFI, OCUL, ONDS, PLTR, RKLB, INFQ, SIDU and EVLV.