Twitter Q4 results: shares down 10% after earnings revenue beats estimates

Twitter stock plummeted by 10% despite beating Wall Street estimates. Twitter’s fourth quarter (Q4) results led to a drop in shares because of a decline in monthly active users (MAUs).

Twitter earnings: key figures

Twitter earnings

Twitter Q4 earnings exceeded the expectations of financial experts.Twitter Q4 revenue was $909 million, exceeding the $868.1 million projected by Wall Street. The social media company’s earnings per share was $0.31, surpassing the estimate of $0.25. While many figures increased, not all of Twitter’s numbers grew. The app’s monthly active users plateaued at 321 million and the number is down from 330 million users in 2018.

Twitter has blamed the lack of growth in MAUs on the General Data Protection Regulation(GDPR) that protects users’ personal data.

The social media company also noted that the MAU’s declined because of a crackdown on ‘bots’, or fake Twitter accounts.

Chief executive officer, (CEO), Jack Dorsey, noted the success of Twitter’s Q4 revenue.

‘Our efforts to improve health have delivered important results, and new product features like a single switch to move between latest and most relevant tweets have been embraced by the people who use Twitter. We enter this year confident that we will continue to deliver strong performance by focusing on making Twitter a healthier and more conversational service,’ wrote Dorsey in a statement.

What do Twitter’s Q4 results mean for their share price?

Twitter’s Q4 results have been positive, but could ironically be negative for its share price. Twitter’s share price is currently $30.80 and could fall further after news about a stagnation in MAU’S and a report that the company will have a new metric to measure monetizable daily active users.

How do Twitter’s Q4 results compare to other tech stocks?

Facebook and Snapchat have had positive earnings results, similar to Twitter’s better-than-expected Q4 revenue report. Though their shares jumped after their earnings reports, Twitter’s stock has gone in the opposite direction and has fallen.

What is Twitter’s dividend forecast?

For Q1, Twitter projects total revenue to be between $715 million-$775 million, close to the $762 million expected from Wall Street. The social media company projected operating income from $5 million-$35 million. In addition, the company said it predicts full-year 2019 operating expenses to be up 20% this year, with capital expenditures expected to be between $550 million and $600 million, far beyond estimates of $415 million. Twitter explained the increased expenses are to combat the spread of false information and to increase security on the app.