Social media Twitter broke market expectations and surpassed $1 billion in sales for the first time. Twitter joined the “earning surprise” march by U.S. companies focusing on the IT sector.
According to Reuters and CNBC, Twitter posted $1.01 billion in sales in the fourth quarter of last year, up 11 percent from a year earlier. It was a surprise performance that surpassed the $996.7 million estimate. This is the first time that quarterly sales have exceeded $1 billion.
Many new users are due to Twitter. In the fourth quarter of last year, the number of daily active users came to 152 million, up 26 million from 126 million a year earlier. The figure surpassed the estimate of 147.5 million for financial information company Repinitive. Reuters said Twitter is trying to improve its platform and remove bad content more user-friendly. Twitter also announced plans to establish a new data center this year.
Twitter saw its stock price surge more than 15 percent on the back of its favorable performance on the day. It is the highest rise among companies belonging to the Standard & Poor’s 500 index.
Twitter joining the earning surprise march with other companies
Twitter isn’t the only one for U.S. companies, especially in the IT sector. Recently, Apple, Tesla, Microsoft, Facebook, Intel, AMD, and others have released performance that exceeds market expectations. With more than 60 percent of S&P 500 companies reporting their fourth-quarter earnings last year, 71 percent saw their net profit exceed Wall Street forecasts, according to Factset.
Analysts say that the U.S. stock market has reported a solid corporate performance despite the recent scare over the new coronavirus. The Dow Jones 30 industrial average closed at 29,379.77, up 88.92 points, or 0.30 percent, from the previous trading day. It rose for the fourth consecutive trading day, rewriting its all-time record. The S&P 500 index and the NASDAQ index also rose 0.33 percent and 0.67 percent, respectively, to break their highs.
Meanwhile from the retail section, Amazon also reported an unexpected earning surprise.
