Twitter shares rose Wednesday after Vertical Group upgraded the social-media titan to very positive from mixed/positive amid optimism about the company’s growth.
“The flow of new brand campaign promotions and product releases, which picked up in the late first quarter, has accelerated further in April and May, boosting Twitter’s year-on-year growth momentum,” wrote Vertical analyst Phil Leggiere.
Meanwhile, “[Mobile app promotion] and [direct response] initiatives also make additional tentative progress,” he said.
Twitter recently traded at $60.46, up 2.8%. It has gained 28% over the past six months amid heightened activity on social media during the pandemic.
“After a strong pickup late in the first quarter, … brand spending notched up further in April and May, as the pipeline of new product releases, still backed up for many months from delays due to the pandemic, begins to flow more strongly,” Leggiere said.
Last week, Twitter unveiled its first paid subscription service, Twitter Blue, in Australia and Canada.
The service includes Undo Tweet, which gives users up to 30 seconds to revise Tweets before they go live; bookmark folders to organize saved content; and Reader Mode, which makes long threads easier to read.
Twitter didn’t indicate when the service would be available to U.S. users.
Last month, the company said it would launch a tip jar that enables users to financially support content creators.
“Tip Jar is an easy way to support the incredible voices that make up the conversation on Twitter,” the San Francisco platform’s senior product manager, Esther Crawford, said.
