Twitter Shares Tank After Revenue Miss, Flat User Growth

Shares of Twitter Inc. fell 9% in premarket trade after the company missed fourth-quarter revenue expectations and posted flat sequential user growth. The company reported a net loss of $167 million, or 23 cents per share, compared to a loss of $90.2 million, or a loss of 13 cents in the year-earlier period. It reported adjusted earnings per share of 16 cents, above the FactSet consensus of 12 cents. Revenue was $717 million, up 1% from the year-earlier period, but below the FactSet consensus of $739.7 million. Twitter reported 319 million monthly active users for the quarter, an increase of 0.6% from the 317 million in the previous quarter, and up 4% year-over-year. The company said daily active users had grown 11% year-over-year for the quarter, compared to an increase of 7% in the previous quarter. For the first quarter of 2017, Twitter said it expected adjusted EBITDA between $75 million and $95 million and stock based compensation expense between $125 million and $135 million. FactSet analysts had expected adjusted EBITDA of $189.1 million. For the full-year 2017, Twitter expects non-GAAP expenses to be about 5%, which is flat compared to 2016. Shares of Twitter have fallen 2% in the past three months, while the S&P 500 has gained of 6%.