Snowflake Falls 5% as Traders Take Profits on Its Guidance Surge; Datadog Holds Steady
Snowflake surged 17% on earnings night, then spent Friday giving it back while every benchmark around it barely budged. That split-screen moment raises a pointed question about who is actually selling and why.
This post may contain links from our sponsors and affiliates, and Flywheel Publishing may receive compensation for actions taken through them.
Snowflake (NYSE:SNOW | SNOW Price Prediction) is handing back part of Wednesday evening’s post-earnings pop, while enterprise software peers and the broader tape barely register a wobble. That gap between a name-specific giveback and a steady sector reads like textbook profit-taking. The Invesco QQQ Trust (NASDAQ:QQQ) is unchanged at $717.67, and the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSEARCA:SPY) is down 0.4% to $769.89.
Snowflake stock is down 5% to $339.60, cooling off after a one-session surge that lifted shares to a fresh multi-month high on Thursday. Meanwhile, Datadog (NASDAQ:DDOG) stock is unchanged at $214.46 as the observability peer holds its ground through Friday afternoon trading.
Profit-Taking Follows a One-Session Surge
The move looks mechanical, not fundamental. Snowflake reported Q2 FY2027 results after the close on September 2, delivering non-GAAP EPS of $0.62 against a $0.447 consensus and revenue of $1.55 billion, up 35.1% year over year (YoY). Product revenue climbed 37% YoY to $1.49 billion, remaining performance obligations reached $9 billion, up 30% YoY, and net revenue retention held at 126%.
Snowflake’s management raised the company’s FY27 product revenue guide to $6.07 billion, or 36% growth, and lifted its non-GAAP operating margin guide to 14.5%. The company added 692 net new customers, up 32% YoY, its Cortex AI suite surpassed 9,100 accounts, and CoWork reached 5,800 accounts. CEO Sridhar Ramaswamy asserted, “Snowflake delivered another strong quarter, with product revenue of $1.49 billion, up 37% year-over-year, as Snowflake continues to power the enterprise AI revolution.” Snowflake stock surged 17% on the release day, and today’s pullback still leaves it up 3% over the past week.
Peer Read Confirms the Setup
Datadog is a clean observability comp for a Snowflake move, and its calm trading through the session cuts against any read that enterprise software is being sold as a group. Datadog delivered its own beat on August 6, posting Q2 2026 revenue of $1.12 billion, up 35.6% YoY, and raised its full-year revenue guide to $4.45 billion to $4.47 billion. Non-GAAP operating margin expanded to 23%, and free cash flow reached $278.7 million.
With Datadog roughly flat, QQQ unchanged, and SPY only marginally lower, the Snowflake pullback registers as position unwinding rather than a reassessment of the business. Nothing about Snowflake changed overnight. Guidance held steady, disclosures were routine, and no analyst event of consequence emerged, leaving a large one-session gain to meet the natural supply of holders who had waited for exactly that gain to arrive.
The pattern isn’t new. In Q2 FY2026, Snowflake stock jumped 20% on the day of the report, then slid 6% over the following week. Post-earnings gap-fills are the norm here, and Snowflake’s operational trajectory keeps improving through them.
Session Scorecard
| Ticker | Today | Year to Date |
|---|---|---|
| SNOW | down 5% | up 55% |
| DDOG | unchanged | up 57% |
Both names have run hard in 2026. Snowflake stock is up 55% year to date (YTD), and Datadog stock is up 57% YTD. That backdrop matters. When a name this extended posts a 17% single-session pop on earnings, a giveback the following session is often the price of a crowded book meeting a natural exit. Datadog’s one-month chart tells a different story, with shares down 26% over the past month after a large-customer usage reset that management folded into guidance. Today’s steady tape under Datadog suggests investors have moved past that reset.
What to Watch Next
The question price action can’t settle is whether the raised outlook deserved the size of Wednesday’s move. That answer comes with Q3 FY2027 results. Snowflake’s management guided Q3 product revenue to $1.588 billion to $1.593 billion, or 37% to 38% growth. Traders can watch for whether AI adoption keeps pulling core platform consumption higher into that report (the supplier side of that AI buildout, from power to networking, is the subject of a free report we put together here).
Anyone who bought before Snowflake’s report can treat today’s decline as normal digestion. For those who chased the pop, it’s a reminder that liquidity events aren’t information. Investors sizing new exposure to Snowflake stock here should scale their positions carefully given the YTD run and elevated near-term volatility, keeping their allocation modest until the next quarterly cadence validates the raised outlook.
Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.
David Moadel is financial writer specializing in stocks, ETFs, options, precious metals, and Bitcoin. David has written well over 1,000 articles for leading online publications, helping investors understand markets, income strategies, and risk.His work has appeared in The Motley Fool, InvestorPlace, U.S. News & World Report, TipRanks, ValueWalk, Benzinga, Market Realist, TalkMarkets, Finmasters, 24/7 Wall St., and others.With a master’s degree in education, David has taught at the elementary, high school, and college levels. That teaching background shapes his writing style: clear, educational, and practical. David has also built a loyal social-media audience by providing trustworthy financial content on YouTube, X/Twitter, and StockTwits.
