Twitter released its second quarter earnings report after closing bell tonight, posting earnings of 7 cents per share on $502 million in revenue. Analysts were expecting earnings of 4 cents per share and revenue of $482 million. In last year’s second quarter, the micro-blogging platform posted earnings of 2 cents per share and $312 million in revenue.
Twitter beats guidance
Twitter’s revenue increased 61% compared to last year and was ahead of management’s guidance of between $470 million and $485 million. Without the negative currency impacts, revenue would have climbed 68%.
GAAP net losses were $137 million or 21 cents per share, while non-GAAP net income was $49 million. In last year’s second quarter, GAAP net losses were 24 cents per share. Twitter’s adjusted EBITDA increased 122% year over year to $120 million, beating management’s guidance of between $97 million and $102 million. EBITDA margin was 24% for the second quarter.
Twitter reported a 15% increase in monthly active users, with most of the sequential adds coming from SMS Fast Followers. Ad revenue increased 63% to $452 million, while mobile ad revenue made up 88% of total ad revenue. Data licensing and other revenue increased 44% to $50 million. U.S. revenue rose 53% to $321 million, while international revenue rose 78% year over year to $181 million.
“Our Q2 results show good progress in monetization, but we are not satisfied with our growth in audience,” Twitter interim Chief Executive Jack Dorsey said in a statement. “In order to realize Twitter’s full potential, we must improve in three key areas: ensure more disciplined execution, simplify our service to deliver Twitter’s value faster, and better communicate that value.”
Twitter posts strong guidance
Twitter management also released guidance that exceeded expectations. They’re expecting revenue of between $545 million and $560 million, compared to the consensus estimate of $556 million. The company expects adjusted EBITDA of between $110 million and $115 million.
For the full year, management expects revenue of between $2.2 billion and $2.27 billion, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.2 billion. They expect full year adjusted EBITDA of between $520 million and $550 million.
As of this writing, shares of Twitter were up 5.69% at $38.64 per share.
