Twitter tops profit projections, sales as turnaround gains steam
Twitter Inc.’s push into live video and more personalised content is finally starting to pay off, boosting revenue and profit more than projected in the first quarter by luring users and advertisers. The shares surged.
Sales jumped 21%, the most in two years, to $664.9 million, Twitter said Wednesday in a statement. That surpassed the average analysts’ estimate of $605.9 million, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The social-media network, originally known for its 140-character posts, said monthly active users rose to 336 million, up by 6 million from the prior period and slightly ahead of analysts’ predictions.
The numbers validate a growing view among analysts that the company has stabilized after a rocky few years, when it struggled to compete for ad dollars with the likes of Facebook Inc. and Google’s YouTube.
Since Twitter reported a third-quarter earnings beat in October, its shares have rallied more than 50% and been upgraded by at least eight analysts.
The strong revenue and user growth also indicates that escalating concerns about socialmedia companies’ data-collection practices so far haven’t eroded Twitter’s business.
“There’s just been a continued global interest in news and information that’s a good tailwind for Twitter, especially as their products improve,” said Richard Greenfield, an analyst at BTIG, before the results. “They’re iterating the product more in the last two years than they have in the pas
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