What happened

Shares of Twitter (TWTR) surged on Thursday, rising as much as 17%. As of 10:55 a.m. EST, however, the stock was up 16.2%.

The stock's gain follows Twitter's impressive fourth-quarter results, which featured better-than-expected revenue and 21% year-over-year growth in monetizable daily active users (mDAUs).

Four young people using their smartphones.

Image source: Getty Images.

So what

Financial results for the tech company's fourth quarter were mixed. Twitter's non-GAAP (adjusted) earnings per share of $0.25 missed analysts' average forecast for $0.29. But revenue of $1.01 billion exceeded a consensus forecast for $996.7 million.

The big highlight, however, was that Twitter posted its fourth consecutive quarter of accelerating growth in mDAUs. Total mDAUs were 152 million, beating analysts' average estimate of 147.5 million.

Now what

Looking to the company's first quarter of 2020, management guided for revenue between $825 million and $885 million. This compares to analysts' average forecast for revenue during the period of $873 million.