After spending much of April flirting with all-time lows, Twitter Inc. (NYSE:TWTR) finally got some good news on Wednesday when it released quarterly earnings.
Results were strong across the board, especially when compared to lowered expectations. The company posted a solid profit of $0.11 per share. This was below last year’s results of $0.15 per share, but well ahead of analyst estimates. In addition, revenue was down 7.8% to $548 million, but that was $36.1 million ahead of expectations.
Social media investors tend to care more about user stats than earnings, and Twitter delivered in that category as well. Average monthly users were up 6% on a year-over-year basis and up nearly 3% versus the fourth quarter. Average daily usage was up 14% versus the same quarter last year, which represents accelerating growth.
Live streaming was also strong, with live video reaching 45 million unique users.
Twitter’s outlook wasn’t terribly exciting, however. The company said it would post between $95 million and $115 million in adjusted EBITDA in the second quarter, while analysts projected that number would be closer to $140 million.
The lackluster outlook is because of a weak advertising market, as well as a number of ad deals signed months ago that aren’t expected to renew at similar rates.
Despite the tepid outlook, investors still cheered Twitter’s results. Shares increased $1.34 each, or 9.14%, to $16.00 each during midday trading Wednesday on the New York Stock Exchange. Shares are still close to their 52-week low of $13.73, however.
