Shares of Snowflake Inc ( SNOW ) are trading higher Wednesday as investors await the cloud data company’s second-quarter earnings report, scheduled for release after the market close.

What To Know: The positive momentum could be part of a sympathy play after competitor MongoDB Inc posted strong quarterly results, beating analyst expectations on both the top and bottom lines.

MongoDB’s impressive performance, driven by the adoption of AI applications, has created a bullish sentiment for the broader data platform sector. Investors are anticipating that Snowflake, a key player in the AI infrastructure stack, will follow suit with upbeat earnings. The company has a track record of exceeding analyst estimates for the past four consecutive quarters.

For the second quarter, analysts are forecasting earnings of 27 cents per share on revenue of $1.09 billion. Snowflake has guided for product revenue growth of 25% for the quarter.

JMP Securities analyst Patrick Walravens recently reiterated a Market Outperform rating on the stock with a $260 price target, citing the potential for an upside surprise on product revenue growth. The overall market for data and AI is expanding rapidly, with the total addressable market expected to more than double to over $355 billion by 2029.

Price Action: According to data from Benzinga Pro, SNOW shares are trading higher by 2.7% to $199.60 during Wednesday’s session. The stock has a 52-week high of $229.27 and a 52-week low of $107.13.

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How To Buy SNOW Stock

By now you're likely curious about how to participate in the market for Snowflake – be it to purchase shares, or even attempt to bet against the company.

Buying shares is typically done through a brokerage account. You can find a list of possible trading platforms here. Many will allow you to buy “fractional shares,” which allows you to own portions of stock without buying an entire share.

If you're looking to bet against a company, the process is more complex. You'll need access to an options trading platform, or a broker who will allow you to “go short” a share of stock by lending you the shares to sell. The process of shorting a stock can be found at this resource. Otherwise, if your broker allows you to trade options, you can either buy a put option, or sell a call option at a strike price above where shares are currently trading – either way it allows you to profit off of the share price decline.

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