Twitter shares sink at the open after yesterday’s $1bn selloff
Twitter's share price sank further on the opening bell in New York today, after its results sent prices into a nosedive yesterday.
Shares fell 3.6 per cent to 15.80 at the open, after they plummeted more than 12 per cent yesterday, wiping $1bn after the company's value.
Its fourth quarter earnings, posted yesterday, showed revenues had edged up just one per cent to $717m in the past year, its slowest quarterly growth since going public.
There was surprise among investors that the service hadn't experienced a so-called "Trump bump", given the new US President's fondness for mouthing off on Twitter.
"We can't quantify an impact at this point," insisted Anthony Noto, chief operating officer.
"It would be hard for a single person to drive it."
Analysts pointed out that its failure to capitalise on Trump's enthusiasm was a bad sign.
"This miss is such a big deal because Twitter is receiving more attention than ever, thanks to President Trump’s usage, however the firm is failing to convert this attention into growth," said Fiona Cincotta, market analyst at City Index.
"It has the resources but it hasn't managed to create a platform that attracts more users and they haven’t been able to create a viable return for advertisers.
"Yes, the number of users grew, but only marginally, 7 per cent in the quarter, and this was a quarter with US Presidential elections so user growth should have been much higher.
"When compared to Snapchat, which is estimated to have seen user growth of 90 per cent in 2016, the problem of Twitter is laid bare."
"The problem for Twitter is that non-users are unlikely to take up the service to view Trump’s tweets in real time when they can get the full summary on other news sites," added Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst at IG.
"The attempt to shift focus from monthly active users to daily ones is indicative of a management that is struggling to build a successful narrative." Ouch.