Twitter Inc 2Q 2017 Earnings Killed by MAUs Again

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Twitter 2Q 2017 earnings were released before opening bell this morning. The micro-blogging firm reported adjusted earnings of 8 cents per share, which was ahead of consensus at 5 cents per share on $573.9 million in revenue, which also beat consensus at $537.5 million in revenue. However, the specter of monthly active users rose once again to send its shares crashing in premarket trades. In last year’s second quarter, Twitter reported $602 million in revenue.

The company added that starting in this quarter, it is changing the way it calculates its non-GAAP provision for income taxes to meet the new SEC requirements on non-GAAP financial reporting measures. Under the previous method for reporting non-GAAP results, Twitter 2Q 2017 earnings would have been 12 cents per share. Because of this change, it’s unclear how comparable the consensus estimate is to Twitter’s official non-GAAP result of 8 cents per share.

Twitter 2Q 2017 earnings

On a GAAP basis, Twitter 2Q 2017 earnings were actually a loss of 16 cents per share, compared to last year’s losses of 15 cents per share. Adjusted EBITDA amounted to $178 million, while the adjusted EBITDA margin was 31%. In the year-ago quarter, the company’s adjusted EBITDA was $175 million with a margin of 29%. Twitter’s ad revenue fell 8% year over year to $489 million.

The company said monthly active users ticked 5% higher year over year to 328 million, which still missed the consensus of 328.8 million. The number of daily active users grew 12%, which was the third quarter in a row in which the micro-blogging firm reported daily active user growth in the double digits.

Twitter Chief Operating Officer Anthony Noto said in a statement. “We’re proud of our strong growth in video, which remained our largest and fastest growing ad format, and we received a positive response from advertisers around the live premium video content debuted at Twitter’s Digital Content NewFronts.”

Twitter provides guidance

Twitter also released guidance for the third quarter and full year. For the third quarter, it projects adjusted EBITDA of $130 million to $150 million with a margin of 25% to 26%. For the full year, it expects non-GAAP expenses to be down by 3% to 6% year over year.

After Twitter 2Q 2017 earnings were reported, the company’s stock plummeted in premarket trades, falling by as much as 9.64% to $17.72 per share.

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