Twitter up on sale speculation

new york/san francisco — Twitter shares rose the most in five weeks on an endorsement from Citron Research and renewed speculation the socialmedia company may be an acquisition target.

The research firm in a tweet called 2018 “the year for” Twitter, put a target price of $35 on the stock and speculated that Chinese social-media giant Tencent Holdings would buy the San Francisco-based company. Earlier, Twitter gained as unconfirmed takeover speculation among traders pointed to Salesforce.com as a possible buyer.

Twitter jumped 9.5 per cent to $24.27 at the close in New York, the biggest single-day increase since December 18.

“I think Twitter is at the early onset of a pretty meaningful turnaround in revenue,” BTIG analyst Richard Greenfield said in a phone interview.

“It wouldn’t shock me for someone to try to buy them before it happens.”

The company reported surprisingly positive third-quarter results in late October and received upgrades and higher target prices from at least six Wall Street analysts, fueling a 40 per cent stock rally through mid-January.

Shares declined five per cent the past three days after Twitter said chief operating officer Anthony Noto had left to become chief executive officer at Social Finance. — Bloomberg