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Illustration by Mike Sullivan

Why Snowflake Stock Needs to Come Down to Earth

By  |  Jan. 11, 2021 9:01 AM PST
Photo: Illustration by Mike Sullivan

Snowflake shares have floated a little closer to earth over the past month since the high-flying enterprise software stock hit a high of $390, valuing it at nearly as much as computing pioneer IBM. But even at their recent price of around $300, Snowflake shares are still trading at a valuation that can only be described as bubble-like.

The stock is trading at 75 times next year’s expected revenues. That’s a huge premium compared to other software as a service companies, which are trading on average at 17 times next year’s expected revenues, using the Bessemer Venture Partners Nasdaq Emerging Cloud Index as a comparison group. A more reasonable price is probably somewhere closer to $162, as we explain below, although even that is generous.

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