Shares of Twitter ( TWTR) are up $1.32, or 9%, at $15.92, after the company this morning reported Q1 revenue and earnings per share that comfortably topped analysts' expectations, with revenue declining even as usage grew. Revenue in the three months ended in March declined 8%, year over year, to $548 million, yielding EPS of 11 cents. Analysts had been modeling $513 million and 11 cents a share. Q1 Rev: $548M, -8% Y/Y; GAAP net loss:$62M; GAAP net loss margin:-11%, adj. EBITDA: $170M w/ 31% margin; CF from ops: $203M; adj. FCF: $126M -- TwitterIR (@TwitterIR) April 26, 2017 The company's " daily active user" count rose 14% from the prior-year period, it said, while " monthly active usage" rose by 9 million, to 328 million. That was better than Street consensus for a net-add of 4 million, and total of 321 million. Daily active usage increased 14% Y/Y, the 4th consecutive quarter of accelerating growth. #TWTR -- TwitterIR (@TwitterIR) April 26, 2017 Twitter said it was the fourth quarter in a row "of accelerating growth" in daily usage, and called the MAU growth " strong." "We believe our audience growth has been driven by a combination of: organic growth (reflecting some seasonal strength), product improvements (including better relevance in the timeline and notifications), and marketing." Twitter's advertising revenue declined by 11%, it said, to $474 million, while "data licensing" revenue was up 17% at $74 million. The part of that total that is "owned and operated" by Twitter itself declined 11%, to $415 million. Said Twitter, " After a challenging start to the quarter, the growth trajectory for O&O improved and we saw more stable revenue trends beginning in mid-February." Twitter's Ebitda, on an adjusted basis, declined 6% to $170 million, but was "our highest adjusted EBITDA margin to date, despite the year-over-year decline in revenue," the company said, at 31% of revenue. It was also much higher than the $98 million the Street had been modeling. For the current quarter, the company sees Ebitda, on an adjusted basis, of $95 million to $115 million. For the full year, it expects its expenses, on a non-GAAP basis, to be in a range of flat to down 5% with the prior-year period. The company said "continues to expect revenue growth to meaningfully lag audience growth" this year. More at Barron's Tech Trader Daily blog, http://blogs.barrons.com/techtraderdaily/ (END) Dow Jones Newswires 04-26-17 0846ET Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Despite the decline in revenue, Twitter beats the estimates. TWTR increased by +7%. This stock can make surprises.