: Twitter earnings show big, unexpected growth and propel stock higher

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Twitter Inc. shares rose sharply in late trading Thursday, after the company reported that it added 7 million more daily active users from the previous quarter and its revenue increased 74%.

Twitter
TWTR,
+0.04%

shares climbed more than 6% higher after hours, after ending the regular session at $69.59, an increase of less than 1%. 

In a letter to investors, the San Francisco-based company said it saw “better-than-expected performance across all major products and geographies” in the second quarter. Revenue rose to $1.19 billion from $683.4 million in the year-ago quarter, with ad revenue soaring to $1.05 billion, an increase of 87% year over year.

The microblogging company reported net income of $65.6 million, or 8 cents a share, compared with a loss of $1.38 billion, or $1.75 a share, in the year-ago period that saw COVID 19-related adjustments. This year’s second-quarter earnings included adjustments for stock-based compensation and other costs.

Analysts surveyed by FactSet had forecast adjusted earnings of 7 cents a share on revenue of $1.06 billion, including ad revenue of $926 million.

Twitter expects third-quarter GAAP operating income to be between a loss of $50 million and break even on revenue of $1.22 billion to $1.3 billion. Analysts on average had expected revenue of $1.17 billion, according to FactSet.

The report portends well for other ad-based social-media companies, as does another report that landed after the market closed Thursday, from Snap Inc.
SNAP,
-0.66%
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which also reported strong growth. Shares of the company’s much bigger competitors, Facebook Inc.
FB,
+1.43%

and Google parent Alphabet Inc.
GOOGL,
+0.68%

GOOG,
+0.55%
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also rose after-hours, with Facebook increasing nearly 3% and Alphabet gaining nearly 1% ahead of their earnings reports next week.

Twitter stock has risen nearly 29% year to date and is up about 81% in the past year. By comparison, the S&P 500 index
SPX,
+0.20%

has climbed 16% so far this year, and 35% in the past 52 weeks.