Slow down birdie

8 February 2018 By Amanda Gomez Follow @alpgomez

Edging into the black triggered a 20 pct bump in the social-media company’s market value, to $24 bln. Part-time boss Jack Dorsey seems optimistic despite outside scrutiny of Twitter’s feeds. But it’s hard to see how a result achieved by cutting costs is a great sign for growth.

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Twitter on Feb. 8 reported its first quarterly profit, making $91 million in the fourth quarter of 2017, or 12 cents per share, a reversal of a loss of 23 cents per share a year earlier. Adjusted profit of 19 cents per share – up from 11 cents a year earlier – surpassed analysts’ expectations of 14 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Revenue increased 2 percent year-over-year in the quarter to $732 million. For the whole of 2017, sales slipped 3 percent to $2.4 billion.

Twitter’s monthly active users increased 4 percent year-on-year to 330 million in the fourth quarter, the same number as in the third quarter. Daily active users increased 12 percent year-on-year. Twitter does not provide the underlying number of daily users.

Twitter shares surged over 20 percent in early New York trade on Feb. 8.

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