UPDATED 20:37 EDT / FEBRUARY 06 2020

APPS

Twitter shares surge on better-than-expected user growth and revenue

Twitter Inc. share surged in regular trading early today after the microblogging service provider beat analysts’ estimates on revenue and user growth in its fourth quarter.

For the quarter ended Dec. 31, Twitter reported revenue of $1.01 billion, up 11% year-over-year and ahead of analysts’ predictions of $996.7 million. It’s the first time Twitter has booked more than $1 billion in revenue in a single quarter.

Monetizable daily active users, a metric for the number of users from which Twitter can make money, came in at 152 million, up from 126 million a year ago and 145 million in the previous quarter. Analysts had been predicting 147.5 million.

The only metric that didn’t surpass analysts’ predictions was earnings per share, at 25 cents in the quarter versus a predicted 29 cents.

For the full year 2019, Twitter reported revenue of $3.46 billion, up 14% year-over-year. Expenses rose 19%, to $3.09 billion. Net operating income came in at $366 million for an 11% operating margin.

Looking forward, Twitter predicted revenue of between $825 million and $885 million in the first quarter on operating income of between zero and $30 million.

“Our work to increase relevance and ease of use delivered 21% mDAU growth in Q4, with more than half of the 26 million mDAU added in 2019 directly driven by product improvements,” Twitter Chief Executive Officer Jack Dorsey said in a statement. “Entering 2020, we are building on our momentum — learning faster, prioritizing better, shipping more and hiring remarkable talent. All of which put us in a stronger position as we address the challenges and opportunities ahead.”

In an investor call, Dorsey added that in 2020 Twitter is hoping to hire globally, saying that the company’s concentration on San Francisco “is not serving us any longer and we will strive to be a far more distributed workforce which we will use to improve our execution.”

Despite missing on earnings per share, investors liked the numbers. Twitter’s share price jumped 15% in regular trading, to $38.41, its highest share price since October.

Photo: Maxpixel

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