Twitter Posted Its First Ever Profit in Q4 2017

Despite flat user growth and modest (but better than expected) revenue gains, Twitter posted its first ever quarterly profit in Q4 2017. Having gotten used to bad news from the company that has struggled with lackluster user growth and monetization issues since its IPO in 2013, Wall Street jumped at the chance to focus on the positive in today’s earnings release, sending Twitter’s stock price soaring. Twitter’s shares opened at $34.15 on Thursday, up 27 percent from Wednesday close, and are currently trading at the highest price since July 2015.

Considering Twitter’s still evident problem to reignite user growth and the fact that the company’s revenue for the full year actually declined for the first time in 2017, the euphoric reaction to today’s news comes as a bit of a surprise. It appears as if Wall Street is approving of the steps that the company has taken to turn things in the right direction. To keep shareholders happy however, it will have to back up today’s positive signs in its next earnings report three months from now.