Tag Archives: twtr

LinkedIn Needs To Boost Traction With Q4 Earnings Report

LinkedIn ( LNKD ) is set to report earnings after the close Thursday as it seeks to boost mobile user growth and usage among small and midsize businesses. The social networking site for professionals is expected to report revenue of $857.6 million, up 33% from the year-earlier quarter.  In Q3, year-over-year sales rose 37%. The consensus estimate on earnings per share minus items, based on analysts polled by Thomson Reuters, is 78 cents, up 28% but a slowdown from 50% year-over-year growth in Q3. RBC Capital Markets analyst Mark Mahaney on Tuesday reiterated an outperform rating on LinkedIn with a price target of 300. LinkedIn stock was up about 1% in afternoon trading on the stock market today . It closed down 6% Wednesday at 191.25, about 26% off a nine-month high above 258 touched on Nov. 12. LinkedIn stock fell below its 10-week moving average in late December. “LinkedIn’s fundamentals are the strongest of any large-cap Internet stock,” Mahaney wrote. In December, LinkedIn rolled out its new mobile app, Voyager, designed to be faster and more intuitive for users. “We believe this app could lead to greater engagement on the service and will be listening to the Q4 call for any mention of the product’s performance,” Mahaney wrote. LinkedIn eased concerns of slowing growth when it reported third-quarter earnings on Oct. 29 that topped expectations. LinkedIn ended the quarter with 396 million members, up 20% from Q3 2104. The stock popped 11% the day after. “We interpret this intraquarter share price performance as implying slightly negative expectations going into fourth-quarter earnings,” Mahaney wrote. The company has three revenue streams. Talent Solutions, used by companies to recruit employees, accounted for 64% of revenue in Q3. Marketing Solutions, which sells ads, accounted for 18%. Premium Subscriptions, fees paid by users for enhanced services, accounted for the other 18%. LinkedIn gets a strong Composite Rating of 90 from IBD out of a possible 99. Facebook ( FB ) continued to show it’s king of social media with a fourth-quarter earnings report last week that soundly beat expectations on booming mobile ad revenue. Facebook revenue rose 52% to $5.84 billion from the year-earlier period. Monthly active users on Facebook came in at 1.59 billion. Twitter ( TWTR ) is set to report earnings after the close on Feb. 10. Twitter stock has lost about 60% of its value in the past 12 months on worries about slowing user growth and rising competition for online ad revenue.

Twitter Following Yahoo Down The Path To ‘Ex-Growth,’ Downgraded

Twitter ( TWTR ) stock sank again Tuesday after getting downgraded by Stifel analyst Scott Devitt, who warned of sluggish growth in 2016 for the social media site. Stifel lowered its rating on Twitter stock to sell from hold, but it maintained its price target of 14. Twitter stock was down more than 9% in afternoon trading in the stock market today , near 16 and near its all-time low of 15.48, touched on Jan. 20. Twitter stock has struggled below its IPO price of 26 since mid-December. Twitter stock is down 37% from its IPO price and is down 57% in the past 12 months. “We think the company will be challenged to reach its near- and long-term financial expectations given its current usage trajectory,” wrote Devitt in an industry note late Monday. Due to “a lack of product innovation and limited sense of urgency,” Devitt said, “Twitter’s monthly active user growth continues to slow and is at risk of turning negative in 2016.” “If Twitter is in the early stages of following a similar path to ex-growth as AOL ( AOL ) and Yahoo ( YHOO ) experienced before it — as seems to be the case — then there is likely more downside for Twitter common stock,” Devitt said. “More recently, Groupon ( GRPN ) and Zynga ( ZNGA ) were notable Internet companies that quickly rose to prominence followed by a rapid decline in their share prices. Although these companies are not at Twitter’s scale, both still have 50 million users and once had many more.” Facebook ( FB )continues to generate over twice as much ad revenue per U.S. monthly active user as Twitter, said Devitt, and Facebook users spend 10 times as much time on Facebook’s site than Twitter users spend on Twitter. Twitter has long been rumored as a takeover candidate. Besides facing competition from Facebook and others, Twitter is struggling to expand its user base. It has launched programs to reel in “logged out” users who visit Twitter’s site but don’t have accounts of their own, making them less coveted by advertisers. Twitter posted Q3 earnings and revenue that beat Wall Street views, but its user growth slowed and its Q4 sales guidance missed analyst estimates. For Q4, Twitter guided revenue of $695 million to $710 million, up 46% at the midpoint, but analysts had modeled $739.7 million. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect Q4 EPS ex items of 14 cents, up 17%. Twitter is set to report Q4 earnings after the close Feb. 10.    

Shopify Position As E-Com ‘Arms Dealer’ Triggers Nod

Shopify (SHOP), a provider of cloud-based e-commerce platforms, soared Thursday as Wedbush analyst Gil Luria initiated coverage with an outperform rating and price target of 25. Luria said the company’s strong product and channel integration with Amazon.com (AMZN), eBay (EBAY), Facebook (FB) and Twitter (TWTR) distinguishes it from the competition. Luria said Shopify’s payments business will generate as much value for the firm as PayPal (PYPL) did