• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia

Trendingnow

1

'Skills nobody can take': Meet a 20-year-old with a 4.5 GPA who skipped college for technical school to land an 'AI-proof' career

2

After 40 investors rejected Jeff Bezos’ Amazon pitch, his parents offered $245,573 of their retirement savings

3

China suffers another setback in effort to de-dollarize global finance as anchor in the greenback's dominance quietly exits Beijing's payment scheme

1

'Skills nobody can take': Meet a 20-year-old with a 4.5 GPA who skipped college for technical school to land an 'AI-proof' career

2

After 40 investors rejected Jeff Bezos’ Amazon pitch, his parents offered $245,573 of their retirement savings

3

China suffers another setback in effort to de-dollarize global finance as anchor in the greenback's dominance quietly exits Beijing's payment scheme
Finance

This Is Why Morgan Stanley Says Sell Twitter

Lucinda Shen
By
Lucinda Shen
Lucinda Shen
Down Arrow Button Icon
Lucinda Shen
By
Lucinda Shen
Lucinda Shen
Down Arrow Button Icon
April 7, 2016, 12:23 PM ET
Google source logo
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.

On Wednesday, growth-stunted social media company Twitter (TWTR) nabbed an attractive streaming deal with the National Football League—fighting off a list of other titans such as Facebook (FB), Yahoo (YHOO), and Amazon (AMZN) to win the rights to show 10 Thursday night football games worldwide.

For Twitter, the deals are a big opportunity for the ailing company to herd in new monthly active users—a key metric used by social media platforms and an area that Twitter has struggled to grow in past years.

But those streaming rights aren’t going to be enough to make Twitter an attractive buy, Morgan Stanley (MS) analysts wrote in a note Thursday. The analysts maintained an “underweight”—Wall Street’s nice way of saying, “Sell”—rating, and lowered the stock’s price target from $18 to $16. Shares of Twitter are trading at $16.78, down close to 3% in early trading Thursday.

“We see fewer users and less time per user holding back Twitter’s platform monetization,” a team of Morgan Stanley analysts lead by Brian Nowak wrote. “We believe Twitter’s core user engagement remains in decline, as time spent per U.S. mobile user fell by an estimated 10% (year over year in the first quarter of 2016).” The analysts also noted that Twitter’s time spent per user is “already among the lowest” of its rivals and it is “still in decline.”

The bank also slashed how much it thinks Twitter can grow in the future, saying the social media company would add 2.6 million monthly active users in 2016, a steep cut from previous estimates of 5.2 million. For 2017, Morgan Stanley said Twitter would register 300,000 new global monthly users, versus a previous estimate of 3.4 million.

That in turn cuts into Twitter’s ad revenue, which represented about 29% of total revenue in 2015. Morgan Stanley also lowered estimated 2016 revenue from $2.96 billion to $2.83 billion, and also slashed 2017 revenue to $3.23 billion, down from $3.43 billion.

That said, Morgan Stanley still noted that the streaming deal, alongside buzz regarding the Rio Summer Olympics and U.S. Presidential elections would be the main driver for active user growth in 2016, which means delivering the streaming deal and continued social media buzz around the latter two events will be essential for Twitter to hit even those lower monthly active user figures.

“An inability for these events to deliver would likely mean even more downside to our MAU estimates,” analysts wrote.

Even then however, Morgan Stanley has been “skeptical” about the user growth the NFL partnership could create for two main reasons: first, it’s hard to change consumer behavior and most NFL watchers still do so on TV, and second, Twitter streamers won’t be required to log in to watch the game—which might be user friendly, but doesn’t guarantee new user registrations.

About the Author
Lucinda Shen
By Lucinda Shen
See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon

Latest in Finance


Most Popular

Fortune Secondary Logo
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • World's Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
  • Lists Calendar
Sections
  • Finance
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Features
  • Leadership
  • Health
  • Commentary
  • Success
  • Retail
  • Mpw
  • Tech
  • Lifestyle
  • CEO Initiative
  • Asia
  • Politics
  • Conferences
  • Europe
  • Newsletters
  • Personal Finance
  • Environment
  • Magazine
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
  • Group Subscriptions
About Us
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • TikTok icon
  • YouTube icon

    Latest in Finance


    Most Popular

    © 2026 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
    FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.