What’s Jolting Twitter Toward a New 52-Week High?

By Paul Ausick Updated Jan 12, 5:22AM EST · Published Dec 18, 8:00AM EST

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What’s Jolting Twitter Toward a New 52-Week High? — © Thinkstock

At 8:00 a.m. ET Monday morning, Twitter Inc. (NYSE: TWTR) launched a new global general news network in a partnership with Bloomberg Media. The news service is called @tictoc and will feature live streaming video and reporting from Bloomberg journalists located around the world.

The social media’s stock traded up nearly 5% in Monday’s premarket session, above the stock’s current 52-week high, but the deal with Bloomberg may have only an indirect impact on the new bump in Twitter stock.

More important for investors is likely a rating hike from JPMorgan analyst Doug Anmuth, who raised Twitter to Overweight and lifted his 12-month price target from $20 to $27. A forecast jump of more than 30% in a year never fails to attract investors’ attention.

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The interesting thing about @tictoc is that the network won’t rely solely on Bloomberg’s stable of professional journalists. In addition to the pros, @tictoc promised to curate and verify breaking news from consumers “with a real-time distillation of the related conversation on Twitter.” Bloomberg Media CEO Justin Smith explained:

With TicToc by Bloomberg, we’re fusing the best of Bloomberg and Twitter to build a fast and credible modern news experience. The launch of this new network further reinforces our strategy of driving innovation through exciting new products and services that touch a broad audience around the world. … [C]onsumers will be able to watch live news and the conversation around it at the same time, all while a dedicated team of Bloomberg editors verifies the facts. We’re leveraging our journalism and data to reach and inform an intelligent audience on Twitter around the world.

Many news junkies turn to Twitter for essentially instant but non-curated news coverage. The downside is consumers can never be quite sure that the news is real. If Bloomberg can quickly verify news posted by consumers, this could be a big deal.

Twitter shares closed at $22.23 on Friday and traded at $23.35 in Monday’s premarket session, up about 5%. The stock’s 52-week trading range is $14.12 to $23.24, and the 12-month consensus price target is $18.80. The new JPMorgan target is the high, and the low target is $13.

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About the Author Paul Ausick →

Paul Ausick has been writing for a673b.bigscoots-temp.com for more than a decade. He has written extensively on investing in the energy, defense, and technology sectors. In a previous life, he wrote technical documentation and managed a marketing communications group in Silicon Valley.

He has a bachelor's degree in English from the University of Chicago and now lives in Montana, where he fishes for trout in the summer and stays inside during the winter.