Raymond James Upgrades Twitter After Q1 Earnings Beat
Twitter Inc (NYSE: TWTR) reported first quarter results in which the positives outnumber the negatives so a bearish stance on the stock no longer applies, according to Raymond James.
The Analyst
Raymond James' Aaron Kessler upgraded Twitter from Underperform to Market Perform with no assigned price target.
The Thesis
Twitter's first quarter revenue of $665 million was "well above" Kessler's estimate of $613 million and was driven by improving advertising growth rates and strong international growth, the analyst said in a Wednesday afternoon note.
Other positives from the earnings report include:
International ad revenue rose 51 percent from a year ago and the company guided for international revenue to exceed U.S. ad revenue in the coming quarters;
EBITDA of $244 million was 13 percent ahead of what the analyst was modeling; and
Daily active users rose 10 percent from a year ago, which brings the streak of double-digit growth to six quarters.
On the other hand, Twitter's management noted tougher comps would affect growth rates in the bottom half of 2018, the analyst said. The company's revenue growth would look like the sequential growth rates the company showed in 2016.
Price Action
Shares of Twitter were trading higher by nearly 2 percent at $30.46.
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Latest Ratings for TWTR
Apr 2018 | UBS | Upgrades | Neutral | Buy |
Apr 2018 | Morgan Stanley | Maintains | Equal-Weight | Equal-Weight |
Apr 2018 | Atlantic Equities | Upgrades | Underweight | Neutral |
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