Twitter's Net Loss Can't Hold Back Record Quarter

Media

Published: July 23, 2020 9:44 am

Twitter Inc. (NYSE: TWTR) reported its second-quarter financial results on Thursday before the opening bell. The firm said that it had a net loss of $0.16 per share and $683 million in revenue, which compares with consensus estimates that called for breakeven earnings and revenue of $707.51 million. The same period of last year reportedly had EPS of $1.58 on $829.1 million in revenue.

In the latest quarter, total revenues decreased 19% year over year. At the same time, costs and expenses totaled $807 million, an increase of 5% year over year. Overall, the drop in revenue in the quarter reflected a moderate recovery in advertising demand relative to the final three weeks of March.

Average monetizable daily active users (mDAU) totaled 186 million for the second quarter, compared to 139 million in the same period of the previous year and to 166 million in the previous quarter.

Twitter grew mDAU by 34% year over year. Note that this is the highest quarterly year-over-year growth rate Twitter has delivered since it began reporting mDAU growth.

CEO Jack Dorsey addressed the security issue Twitter suffered last week. He said that the company moved quickly to address what happened and that it has taken additional steps to improve resiliency against targeted social engineering attempts and implemented numerous safeguards to improve the security of its internal systems.

Management also noted that despite the pandemic, brands have found innovative ways to join the conversation on Twitter to connect with their customers. Twitter completed its ad server rebuild and is making progress accelerating its performance ads roadmap. With a larger audience and progress in ads, the firm is better positioned to deliver for advertisers when the live events and product launches.

Twitter stock traded up about 3% early Thursday to $38.08, with a 52-week range of $20.00 to $45.86. The consensus price target is $31.53.