Twitter plunges as company moves to purge fake accounts
Wedbush Securities managing director Michael Pachter discusses how Twitter’s purge of fake accounts has caused the company’s stock to decline.
In the wake of the controversy about fake accounts surrounding social media companies, Twitter is trying to clean up its platform – and that was reflected when the company released its second-quarter results Friday.
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| TWTR | NO DATA AVAILABLE | - | - | - |
The social media company had quarterly revenue of $711 million, above the $692.2 million analysts were expecting, while adjusted earnings per share came in at $0.17, equivalent to what analysts polled by Thomson Reuters were expecting. Shares plunged more than 20% in the aftermath, recording their worst day since February 2014 and their second-biggest loss since Twitter went public.
But, investors focused on the company’s report that it is losing users, and expects this trend will continue. The company lost 1 million average monthly active users versus the first quarter. The company expects a third-quarter sequential decline in monthly active users in the mid-single-digit millions.
Twitter attributed the drop in monthly users to its efforts at "improving the health of the public conversation" on the platform but also cited Europe's tough new privacy law.