Tech results: Twitter stock sinks, Amazon marches on

Twitter delivered a strong result, but the longer-term outlook remains troubling. Photo / Getty Images

Like its bigger tech peers, Twitter posted stronger-than-expected results for the first quarter on Thursday. But its lukewarm outlook sent shares tumbling after hours.

The San Francisco-based company earned US$68 million, or 8 cents per share, in the January-March period. That's up from a loss of US$8.4 million, or 1 cent per share, a year earlier.

Revenue grew 28 per cent to US$1.04 billion. Analysts, on average, were expecting a loss of 2 cents per share on revenue of US$1.03 billion, according to a poll by FactSet.

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Twitter had 199 million daily users, on average, in the third quarter, up 20 per cent year-over-year and slightly below the 200 million that analysts were expecting.

By comparison, Facebook had 1.88 billion daily users on average in March 2021, an increase of 8 per cent year-over-year. Snapchat, meanwhile, had 280 million average daily active users in the first quarter.

Twitter does not disclose monthly user figures.

Twitter said it expects revenue between US$980 million and US$1.08 billion for the second quarter. The midpoint of that is below analysts' expectations of $1.06 billion.

Twitter's stock fell US$5.81, or 8.9 per cent, to US$59.28 in after-hours trading.

Rise and rise of Amazon

Amazon's pandemic boom isn't showing signs of slowing down.

The company said Thursday that its first-quarter profit more than tripled from a year ago, fueled by the growth of online shopping. It also posted revenue of more than US$100 billion, the second quarter in row that the company has passed that milestone.

Amazon is one of the few retailers that has benefited during the pandemic. As physical stores temporarily closed, people stuck at home turned to Amazon to buy groceries, cleaning supplies and more. That doesn't seem to be dying down.

In the first three months of this year, the company reported profit of US$8.1 billion, compared to $2.5 billion the year before. Earnings per share came to US$15.79, about US$6 more per share than what Wall Street analysts expected, according to FactSet.

Revenue jumped 44 per cent to US$108.5 billion.

- Associated Press