Media

Why This Major Short Seller Is Calling for Over 50% Upside in Twitter

Chris Lange

Published: August 13, 2018 1:05 pm

Last Updated: January 11, 2020 7:28 pm

Twitter Inc. (NYSE: TWTR) shares made a handy gain on Monday after a major short-seller came out in support of the social media giant. Essentially, the activist short-selling firm Citron Research now sees Twitter as a viable option in social media and has called for sizable upside in the near future.

Citron had made a couple correct predictions about Twitter earlier this year including:

• January 26, 2018 Citron recommended Twitter at $22 with a price target of $35. On March 14 Twitter hit $37.
• March 26, while Twitter was trading at $32 Citron predicted the stock would trade down to $25. A week later, the stock traded to $26 catalyzed by the Facebook privacy scandal, as we called.

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In this case, Citron is calling for Twitter to rise to $52 per share within 52 weeks. This call implies upside of roughly 57% from the current price level.

Citron argues that this valuation is reasonable because Twitter is more relevant now than it has ever been and in media dollars follow relevancy.

The firm ultimately concluded in its report:

Our earlier concerns about privacy have been quelled. Facebook, Amazon, and Alphabet have many more privacy concerns than Twitter does. Now we can focus on what is important.

Twitter has never been more relevant than now and money follows relevancy. It is everything but a one trick pony and we are excited to watch this company evolve.

Citron still believes that Twitter has become such a part of the fabric of global communication with limited competition that it is only time before a Google, Apple, or Microsoft would like to put it in basket.

Shares of Twitter were last seen up about 4% at $33.20, with a consensus analyst price target of $33.92 and a 52-week range of $15.77 to $47.79.