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Snap (SNAP) received a buy rating and is said to have replaced Twitter (TWTR) as the No. 2 social networking platform among advertisers, but it faces a formidable rival in Facebook (FB), according to two analyst reports released Wednesday.

The buy rating came from Drexel Hamilton, while the viewpoint that Snap has moved above Twitter came from a report by Needham analyst Laura Martin.

Martin says she met with and quoted the CEO of a company that represents large brands that want to spend ad dollars on social media platforms. Though unnamed in the report, Martin said he's an expert who's worked with all social ad platforms and has spent "hundreds of millions of dollars" on social networking sites.

In the battle for dominance in social networking platforms, it's Facebook's game to lose, Martin's report said.

"Their data superiority, targeting capability, and myriad ad inventory options across four sites makes Facebook the go-to scale player for brands," she said.Martin maintained an underperform rating on Snap.

Snap is the operator of Snapchat, a mobile messaging platform used for sending photos and videos to other Snapchat users. The images disappear in under 10 seconds or can last for 24 hours, depending on user discretion. Facebook has copied many of the most popular features of Snapchat.

Drexel Hamilton analyst Brian White put a buy rating on Snap in a report Wednesday, with a price target of 30.

Snap completed its initial public offering on March 2 but has been hit mostly with a series of sell ratings. White was the second to issue a buy rating.

Snap stock was up 7.1% to close at 21.82 on the stock market today.

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White referred to Snap as a company with "high risk" but also with "explosive growth potential." But the company, which startedcommercial operations in 2011, did not start to monetize the site until 2015.

"The company's new business model is still unproven and Snap operates at a significant loss," White wrote. "As such, the company is still a little rough around the edges in its development and business model. However, this is one of the reasons we like Snap as an investment as we see the potential but it is not yet reflected in the stock price."

Snap competes against a number of companies. These include Facebook, with its Messenger and WhatsApp platform, the Google and YouTube outfits of Alphabet (GOOGL), Line Corp. (LN) and Twitter.

"Although other social messaging platforms enjoy a much higher user base, we believe Snapchat has a cachet with millennials that will be difficult for other platforms to garner," White wrote.

Snap ended 2016 with 158 million Snapchat users. Snapchat is one of the most popular mobile applications with millennials, a group highly sought after by advertisers.

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Snap Passes Twitter Among Advertisers, Gets Buy Rating - Investor's Business Daily