Twitter sales up but shares down
User growth of 25% disappoints Wall Street, sending shares down 11% after hours.
Its year-over-year user growth of 25% disappoints traders, sending shares down 11% after hours.
Despite more than a doubling of revenue, Twitter saw its stock fall 11% after it reported a slowdown in user growth in the first quarter.
The San Francisco company posted revenue of $250 million, up 119% year over year, but reported a quarterly loss of $132 million. It lost $27 million in the same quarter a year earlier.
Twitter continues to spend heavily on research and development and on sales and marketing. Its total costs and expenses nearly tripled compared with the same quarter a year earlier.
The microblogging platform said the loss included $126 million of stock-based compensation expense. Excluding one-time events, Twitter’s loss amounted to $183,000, or about breakeven.
Twitter again struggled with user growth, a problem area during its last earnings report.
In after-hours trading, shares sank $4.76, or 11%, to $37.86. During regular trading, shares rose $1.89, or 4.64%, to $42.62.
Twitter had 255 million monthly active users as of March 31, an increase of 25% year over year; analysts had expected 257 million. That also represented a slowdown in growth: Twitter had reported a 30% year-overyear increase in monthly active users during its last earnings report three months ago.
The number of mobile monthly active users reached 198 million in the first quarter, which represented 78% of the total.
“We had a very strong first quarter. Revenue growth accelerated on a year-over-year basis fueled by increased engagement and user growth,” Chief Executive Dick Costolo said. “We also continue to rapidly increase our reach and scale.”
Advertising revenue totaled $226 million, up 125%. Mobile advertising represented about 80% of total ad revenue.
International revenue totaled $70 million, an increase of 183%, and accounted for 28% of total revenue.