Last Update 19 Feb 26
SNAL: Future Returns Will Be Driven By New Survival Game Launch
Analysts have modestly adjusted their price target on Snail, reflecting a slightly higher discount rate and updated assumptions for fair value, profit margin, revenue growth, and future P/E. Together, these factors point to a refined view of the stock’s risk and return profile in dollar terms.
What's in the News
- Snail and independent studio Loric Games launched Echoes of Elysium on Steam Early Access, a title that combines open world exploration, crafting, and co op survival in an airborne setting. This positions it in a genre with strong community engagement signals. (Key Developments)
- Echoes of Elysium surpassed 150,000 wishlists on Steam prior to Early Access, indicating meaningful user interest and visibility within the PC gaming community. (Key Developments)
- The partnership with Loric Games aligns with Snail’s focus on publishing projects led by experienced teams and built for long term community support through ongoing updates and engagement. (Key Developments)
- On December 30, 2025, Snail received a Nasdaq notice that its common stock did not meet the $1.00 minimum bid price requirement for 30 consecutive business days. This triggered a 180 day compliance period that runs until June 29, 2026. (Key Developments)
- Snail entered into a securities purchase agreement on November 26, 2025, for a $1,000,000 senior unsecured convertible promissory note issued at a 10% original issuance discount, with a 5% one time interest charge, 12 month maturity, and a US$5.00 per share conversion price into Class A common stock. (Key Developments)
Valuation Changes
- Fair Value: kept at $3, indicating no change in the central estimate of what Snail’s shares may be worth in this framework.
- Discount Rate: increased slightly from 9.91% to 10.17%, indicating a modestly higher required return for taking on the stock’s risk.
- Revenue Growth: held steady at 33.82%, so projected top-line expansion within this model is unchanged.
- Net Profit Margin: adjusted slightly from 10.26% to 10.25%, a very small refinement in expected profitability on each dollar of revenue.
- Future P/E: moved slightly higher from 7.67x to 7.74x, indicating a small tweak in how much investors may be assumed to pay for $1 of future earnings in this model.
Key Takeaways
- Proprietary stablecoin and digital asset initiatives are set to improve margins, predictability, and create higher-value revenue channels across Snail's ecosystem.
- Expanding ARK franchise engagement, mobile growth, and subscription participation drive user retention, broaden global reach, and strengthen recurring revenue streams.
- Heavy dependence on one franchise, rising costs, risky new ventures, and pressured margins threaten Snail's long-term profitability and competitive position.
Catalysts
About Snail- Researches, develops, markets, publishes, and distributes interactive digital entertainment worldwide.
- The imminent launch of Snail's proprietary USD-backed stablecoin is anticipated to expand recurring, high-margin digital payments and monetization within Snail's ecosystem, enabling more predictable earnings and boosting net margins as in-game and cross-platform transactions grow.
- Continued strong engagement and content-driven growth in the ARK franchise, including robust pre-sales for ARK: Lost Colony and new mobile/content updates, is set to drive higher long-term user retention and average revenue per user, resulting in sustained revenue and cash flow growth.
- Snail's accelerated expansion into mobile and emerging markets-with millions of downloads on ARK mobile and new genre diversification through Indie and simulation titles-positions the company to capitalize on increasing global internet and smartphone penetration, lifting the company's addressable audience and top-line revenue potential.
- Growing participation in major platform subscription programs (e.g., PlayStation Plus) alongside deep promotional events has widened Snail's user base and increased recurring bookings, setting the stage for improved monetization and future earnings stability.
- The stablecoin project and expanded digital asset initiatives, supported by tailored legal and regulatory compliance measures, align with secular trends toward virtual communities and digital goods spending, creating additional, higher-margin revenue channels that further support net margin expansion.
Snail Future Earnings and Revenue Growth
Assumptions
How have these above catalysts been quantified?- Analysts are assuming Snail's revenue will grow by 18.5% annually over the next 3 years.
- Analysts are not forecasting that Snail will become profitable in next 3 years. To represent the Analyst Price Target as a Future PE Valuation we will estimate Snail's profit margin will increase from -18.8% to the average US Entertainment industry of 9.4% in 3 years.
- If Snail's profit margin were to converge on the industry average, you could expect earnings to reach $14.3 million (and earnings per share of $0.37) by about September 2028, up from $-17.2 million today. The analysts are largely in agreement about this estimate.
- In order for the above numbers to justify the analysts price target, the company would need to trade at a PE ratio of 12.8x on those 2028 earnings, up from -1.9x today. This future PE is lower than the current PE for the US Entertainment industry at 38.2x.
- Analysts expect the number of shares outstanding to grow by 1.75% per year for the next 3 years.
- To value all of this in today's terms, we will use a discount rate of 10.19%, as per the Simply Wall St company report.
Snail Future Earnings Per Share Growth
Risks
What could happen that would invalidate this narrative?- Snail's financials show significant increases in costs and operating expenses (notably headcount, R&D, and marketing), causing a swing from profitability ($2.3 million net income in Q2 2024) to large net losses (negative $16.6 million in Q2 2025) and negative EBITDA, which may undermine long-term earnings sustainability and compress net margins.
- The company remains heavily reliant on the continued performance of its ARK franchise, with most revenue and growth primarily driven by ARK sales, events, and preorders; this lack of diversification exposes Snail to sharp revenue declines and earnings volatility should ARK's popularity wane or IP agreements change.
- Aggressive monetization strategies, such as heavy reliance on deep discounts and periodic publisher sale events to drive bookings and unit sales, may erode long-term pricing power and customer lifetime value, limiting growth in net revenues and average revenue per user.
- Entry into the stablecoin and digital asset market, despite being pitched as innovative, faces long-term regulatory uncertainty, execution risk, and may require substantial investments and expertise with unclear mainstream adoption or near-term monetization, posing a risk to capital allocation and future profitability.
- Increasing industry-wide development and marketing costs, along with the necessity to invest in technologies (e.g., cross-platform support, cloud gaming), could further strain Snail's limited financial resources and weigh on margins, especially as larger publishers and platform holders consolidate market power and elevate barriers to entry.
Valuation
How have all the factors above been brought together to estimate a fair value?- The analysts have a consensus price target of $3.5 for Snail based on their expectations of its future earnings growth, profit margins and other risk factors.
- In order for you to agree with the analyst's consensus, you'd need to believe that by 2028, revenues will be $151.4 million, earnings will come to $14.3 million, and it would be trading on a PE ratio of 12.8x, assuming you use a discount rate of 10.2%.
- Given the current share price of $0.86, the analyst price target of $3.5 is 75.4% higher.
- We always encourage you to reach your own conclusions though. So sense check these analyst numbers against your own assumptions and expectations based on your understanding of the business and what you believe is probable.
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Disclaimer
AnalystConsensusTarget is a tool utilizing a Large Language Model (LLM) that ingests data on consensus price targets, forecasted revenue and earnings figures, as well as the transcripts of earnings calls to produce qualitative analysis. The narratives produced by AnalystConsensusTarget are general in nature and are based solely on analyst data and publicly-available material published by the respective companies. These scenarios are not indicative of the company's future performance and are exploratory in nature. Simply Wall St has no position in the company(s) mentioned. Simply Wall St may provide the securities issuer or related entities with website advertising services for a fee, on an arm's length basis. These relationships have no impact on the way we conduct our business, the content we host, or how our content is served to users. The price targets and estimates used are consensus data, and do not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and they do not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Note that AnalystConsensusTarget's analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.

