Twitter Inc Price Target Slashed, Buy Rating Unchanged: Canaccord

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Social media firm Twitter’s price target has been lowered to $40 from $45, but the rating has been left unchanged at Buy by Canaccord Genuity analysts, in a note released on Thursday. Year to date, the stock is down almost 22%.

Twitter – Google deal yielding results

Twitter needs to grow its user base by regularly updating its service along with making the platform simpler for users, Canaccord believes. The micro-blogging firm must also come up with a campaign to educate users on how and why to use the services. Twitter believe they have reached “technology enthusiasts” and early adopters, but the analysts note the company could still tap many users in the mass market.

Looking into the Twitter and Google deal, which was announced in May, the goal was to enable real-time tweets in search results. Initially, the focus was only on mobile, but in August, desktop devices were also included. Since May, the percentage of mobile searches showing tweets in the U.S. jumped from 54% to 91%.

“The average rank in the results page and the average number of Tweets per search didn’t change but now almost every search across every category will display a Tweet,” Canaccord said.

Twitter still searching for its new CEO

Twitter is still to name a new CEO, and Robinson Humphrey analyst Robert Peck believes the new CEO could be announced by Labor Day. As of now, there is no information from Twitter on progress in its search or on happenings at Thursday’s board meeting.

However, on Thursday, interim CEO Jack Dorsey tweeted a photo of himself in a haircut and beard trim, making him look more like a CEO. Even if the company names the new CEO soon, analysts doubt it will help Twitter much with its woes.

It will be a difficult job for any new CEO as he or she will have to address multiple issues like the dropping stock price, departure of executives, decelerating growth, dropping confidence among employees and investors and revamping the product to make it more appealing to users.

Twitter’s stock has been dropping in recent weeks. Although it recovered a bit after falling below the IPO price, still the overall sentiment remains negative. Twitter is nearing its two-year anniversary as a public company, and its stock is still around the IPO price. The majority of Wall Street has adopted a “wait and see” approach, with 58% of the brokerage firms rating the stock as a Hold, according to FactSet Research.

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