Twitter Inc (TWTR) is gearing up for its initial public offering, and analysts at Pivotal Research Group like the numbers which are in the company’s updated S1 filing. In their report this week, they said the incremental information provided in the filing is net positive compared to their previous expectations.
Twitter’s IPO roadshow coming soon
Pivotal analyst Brian Wieser notes that the results reported in this latest filing are especially important because it will be these that Twitter focuses on in its upcoming IPO roadshow. Some reports have suggested that the roadshow could happen later this month ahead of a Nov. 15 IPO.
Twitter Inc (TWTR) said in its filing that ad revenue grew 123 percent during the third quarter of the year. Wieser says this is “a very solid pace of growth” and reports that this is within about 20 percent of his forecast. In addition to the significant growth in ad revenue, Twitter can also showcase how ad revenue grew faster year over year in the third quarter of this year than it did in the second quarter of last year. At that time, it grew 113 percent.
Twitter’s data revenue slower than expected
The analyst notes that although data revenue is not Twitter’s core business, the segment grew just 11 percent year over year. He said this result indicated much slower growth than expected. In the first quarter of this year data revenue grew 41 percent, while in the second quarter, it grew 63 percent.
He says this could show some potential volatility in this part of Twitter Inc (TWTR)’s business. Nonetheless, he still sees plenty of upside in the micro-blogging site and says this is probably “disproportionately (relative to revenue) valuable” because they expect bigger contribution margins in comparison to advertising activity.
Twitter users increase
Wieser notes that Twitter saw its users increase significantly, reporting 39 percent year over year growth globally and 33 percent in the U.S. alone. He suggests that these numbers are more important for each country because of how they are viewed by advertisers. He said he tends to downplay the importance of the number of users, at least because of the company’s “managerial focus.” However, positive gains in users will certainly be received well by investors, even if advertisers don’t necessarily see them as important.
The filing also indicated that during the third quarter, 76 percent of Twitter Inc (TWTR)’s monthly active users accessed the site via a mobile device, and 70 percent of ad revenue came from mobile devices. Compared to the previous quarter, 75 percent of average users were on a mobile device, while 65 percent of revenue was from mobile devices. Once again, he doesn’t see these metrics as important, but investors will probably see them as important for “ongoing traction” in mobile advertising.
