What happened
Shares of social network Twitter (TWTR) jumped as much as 12.2% on Tuesday following a bullish analyst note on the stock. At 3:51 p.m. EDT, the stock is up 11.8%.
Morgan Stanley analyst Brian Nowak changed his rating for Twitter stock from underweight to equal weight. To justify his upgraded rating, Nowak cited expectations for improving user growth and ad sales. Specifically, Nowak is optimistic about Twitter's video ads.
These factors make Twitter stock "a more compelling risk/reward," the analyst said (via CNBC).
Image source: Getty Images.
So what
After revising estimates for Twitter's business in 2018, Nowak now expects the company's revenue during the year to be $2.75 billion, up more than 2% from his previous forecast for revenue of $2.69 billion. The revised revenue number would be up 13% compared to Twitter's revenue in 2017.
Twitter surprised investors in its fourth quarter when it suddenly returned to revenue growth. Total revenue climbed 2% year over year -- a significant improvement to Twitter's 5% and 4% year-over-year declines in revenue in the company's second and third quarters of 2017, respectively.
Now what
Investors will get to see very soon if Twitter really is growing nicely in 2018. The company is scheduled to report its first-quarter results on April 25, before market open.
On average, analysts are expecting Twitter to report first-quarter revenue and earnings per share (EPS) of $605 million and $0.11, respectively. This compares to revenue and EPS of $548 million and $0.07 in the year-ago quarter.
