Twitter Inc reported weaker-than-expected quarterly advertising revenue and user growth on Thursday and forecast revenue short of Wall Street targets, indicating that its turnaround plan has yet to bear fruit.
Still, the social networking site said it made “meaningful progress” toward its goal of reaching 315 million users and $7.5 billion in annual revenue by the end of 2023, and said user growth should accelerate in the United States and internationally this year.
Shares of the San Francisco-based company rose more than 8% after the results, but pared those gains in morning trading.
Twitter has been pursuing big projects such as audio chat rooms and newsletters to end long-running stagnation and attract new users and advertisers. But the quarterly results raised questions about Twitter’s plan as analysts had expected faster signs of progress.
Monetizable daily active users, or users who see ads, grew 13% to 217 million in the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31, missing consensus estimates of 218.5 million, according to IBES data from Refinitiv. That was up from 211 million users in the previous quarter.
Twitter also announced a new $4 billion share repurchase program, which replaces a $2 billion program from 2020.
“Twitter’s stock buyback plan is helping investors overlook the company’s relatively weak results and outlook,” said Jesse Cohen, senior analyst at Investing.com.
Advertising revenue for the fourth quarter grew 22% year over year to $1.41 billion, missing analysts’ estimates of $1.43 billion.
Reuters
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