Twitter Inc (TWTR) Stock Plummets After-Hours Despite Earnings Beat

The stock price of Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) closed $36.56 per share, up by 5.36%. The shares of the microblogging company plummeted more than 10% to $33.96 per share after-hours (around 5:42 P.M) despite reporting second quarter earnings that beat the expectations of Wall Street analysts.

Twitter CFO warning on user growth

Investors were disappointed after Twitter CFO Anthony Noto warned that the company will not be able to achieve a “sustained, meaningful” user growth for a considerable period.

During the second quarter, Twitter said its average monthly active users (MAUs) excluding SMS Fast Followers increased 12% to 304 million. Eighty percent (80%) of its MAUs came from mobile. Wall Street analysts expected the company to report 310 million MAUs.

Noto said Twitter plans to intensify its marketing initiatives to reach the mass market and emphasize that value of its platform.

In a statement, Twitter co-founder and interim CEO Jack Dorsey said, “Our Q2 results show good progress in monetization, but we are not satisfied with our growth in audience.  In order to realize Twitter’s full potential, we must improve in three key areas: ensure more disciplined execution, simplify our service to deliver Twitter’s value faster, and better communicate that value.”

Twitter financial results

Twitter generated non-GAAP earnings of $0.07 per share, higher than the $0.04 per share expected by Wall Street analysts for the second quarter. The microblogging company achieved $502 million in revenue compared with the $481 million consensus estimate.

According to the microblogging company, its advertising revenue climbed 63% to $452 million. Its mobile advertising revenue was 88% of its total advertising revenue. Its adjusted EBITA increased 122% to $120 million.

In an interview with CNBC’s Closing Bell, Ross Gerber of Gerber Kawasaki commented, “I think Twitter has an awesome product and Periscope has so much potential but they need management.”

On the other hand, Max Wolf of Manhattan Venture partners said, “It’s a pretty good story from a company that folks had really dumped on here and had a tough time in almost any metric. That being said, it’s not enough to turn the story from kind of bad to wonderful, it’s just enough to stabilize.”

Business outlook

Twitter expected its revenue to be around $545 million to $560 million in the third quarter and around $2.20 billion to $2.27 billion for the full year 2015.  The company estimated its adjusted EBITDA to be around $110 million to $115 million next quarter and around $520 million to $540 million for the whole year.