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

Trendingnow

1

Egg companies made $1.22 billion in profit off a $6 carton — now they’re buying their way out of a price-fixing case with 53 million donated eggs

2

Even as Elon Musk calls philanthropy ‘very hard,’ everyday Americans gave a record $617 billion—despite feeling the squeeze over the cost of living

3

Meet the Zillennials: The luckiest micro-generation in the workforce, born between 1993 and 1998

1

Egg companies made $1.22 billion in profit off a $6 carton — now they’re buying their way out of a price-fixing case with 53 million donated eggs

2

Even as Elon Musk calls philanthropy ‘very hard,’ everyday Americans gave a record $617 billion—despite feeling the squeeze over the cost of living

3

Meet the Zillennials: The luckiest micro-generation in the workforce, born between 1993 and 1998
Tech

Jack Dorsey Bought Twitter Stock, Should You?

By
Mathew Ingram
Mathew Ingram
Down Arrow Button Icon
By
Mathew Ingram
Mathew Ingram
Down Arrow Button Icon
February 15, 2017, 6:21 PM ET
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.

Twitter investors got a nice Valentine’s Day present on Tuesday from the co-founder and CEO of the company. According to a securities filing that he tweeted a link to, Jack Dorsey acquired about 425,000 shares of Twitter—worth a total of about $7 million—through a variety of trusts he controls.

Those purchases helped push Twitter’s stock (TWTR) up by about 5% at one point on Tuesday, and some of that enthusiasm carried through into Wednesday as well. It may have been a nice counterpoint to some of the doom and gloom that pushed Twitter shares down last week, after the company reported its financial results. But does Dorsey’s investment mean anything?

Obviously, having the CEO buy $7 million worth of stock is a signal that he has faith in the shares, and possibly believes them to be undervalued, which is definitely a good thing. And his tweet about the trades was clearly designed to send investors a thumbs-up sign.

#LoveTwitter https://t.co/fELbw0ska7

— jack (@jack) February 14, 2017

That said, however, Dorsey also recently made about $11 million, thanks to some pre-scheduled sales of Square (SQ) stock that he owns as the chief executive officer the payments company. So he had some money lying around with which to buy the Twitter shares without facing too much hardship.

Yet while Dorsey may have confidence that his investment will bring a great return, that doesn’t necessarily mean regular investors should load up as well.

As optimistic as Dorsey was in his opening statement on the company’s recent conference call, calling 2016 a “transformative year,” Twitter’s business appears to be fundamentally broken—and it’s unclear how the company intends to fix it. Several of the brokerage firms that cover the stock downgraded it to a “sell” after last week’s results.

Get Data Sheet, Fortune’s technology newsletter.

Although Twitter’s adjusted operating profit improved somewhat in the latest quarter, the company still managed to lose $167 million, according to generally accepted accounting principles, a result of the massive amounts of equity grants it has handed out to employees to get them to stay. Last year, Twitter lost a total of $450 million.

The service has also shown virtually no user growth in the U.S. over the past year, and only a tiny amount of growth worldwide. Revenues came in much lower than expected, and Twitter admitted that it is having to restructure its advertising model. Ad sales, which make up the vast majority of revenue, actually fell in the quarter.

Apart from a sudden sharp swing upwards to about the $24 level in October, when there were rampant rumors that a number of buyers were considering an acquisition of the company (none of which materialized), Twitter’s stock has tumbled by more than 70% over the past two years.

So, could the company’s share price have hit bottom? Possibly. Some analysts have argued that based on Twitter’s cash flow, it is fairly valued at around $10 billion. But buying the shares assumes that they will increase in price. Is there any reason to believe that the stock is going to climb significantly over the next few months?

It seems unlikely that any of the acquirers who lost interest in bidding for the company in October has seen anything that would change their minds about doing a deal now. If anything, in fact, Twitter’s latest earnings report makes it look significantly worse.

There’s still the possibility that Twitter might catch the eye of a foreign acquirer, someone like Softbank. Alternatively, a private-equity group buyout led by someone like Marc Andreessen—who used to be an avid Twitter user—is also a possibility. But those seem like long shots at best. As always, the question is: How much risk are you willing to take?

About the Author
By Mathew Ingram
See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.

Latest in Tech

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
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
  • Pinterest icon

Latest in Tech

ring
PoliticsTariffs
Belgium got its tariffs cut. Then it sent Trump a diamond Superman ring
By Sam McNeil and The Associated PressJuly 4, 2026
9 hours ago
Ejay O'Donnell, Bart Szaniewski, and Grant Eastey wear Dad Gang hats in a factory
SuccessEntrepreneurship
Three dads started selling hats from a garage with $750—now they’ve sold $35 million worth, partnered with Gary Vee, and grown a community of fathers
By Preston ForeJuly 4, 2026
12 hours ago
How a third-generation Texas oilman transformed an organic farming company into a leading advanced nuclear startup at a small Christian college
EnergyNuclear
How a third-generation Texas oilman transformed an organic farming company into a leading advanced nuclear startup at a small Christian college
By Jordan BlumJuly 4, 2026
14 hours ago
Americans will eat 150 million hot dogs today. One specific American is predicted to eat 70 of them
North AmericaFood and drink
Americans will eat 150 million hot dogs today. One specific American is predicted to eat 70 of them
By Catherina GioinoJuly 4, 2026
15 hours ago
‘Devin-kun’: Japan embraces agents as legacy code and a shrinking workforce create a perfect market for an AI software engineer 
AsiaAI agents
‘Devin-kun’: Japan embraces agents as legacy code and a shrinking workforce create a perfect market for an AI software engineer 
By Nicholas GordonJuly 3, 2026
1 day ago
Chad Hurley and Steven Chen wearing suits
SuccessWealth
YouTube’s founders split over $650 million when they sold to Google in 2006—had they held out, they could have taken a slice of $550 billion
By Preston ForeJuly 3, 2026
1 day ago

Most Popular

Egg companies made $1.22 billion in profit off a $6 carton — now they’re buying their way out of a price-fixing case with 53 million donated eggs
Law
Egg companies made $1.22 billion in profit off a $6 carton — now they’re buying their way out of a price-fixing case with 53 million donated eggs
By Wyatte Grantham-Philips and The Associated PressJuly 2, 2026
2 days ago
Even as Elon Musk calls philanthropy ‘very hard,’ everyday Americans gave a record $617 billion—despite feeling the squeeze over the cost of living
Success
Even as Elon Musk calls philanthropy ‘very hard,’ everyday Americans gave a record $617 billion—despite feeling the squeeze over the cost of living
By Preston ForeJuly 4, 2026
15 hours ago
Meet the Zillennials: The luckiest micro-generation in the workforce, born between 1993 and 1998
AI
Meet the Zillennials: The luckiest micro-generation in the workforce, born between 1993 and 1998
By Nick LichtenbergJuly 3, 2026
2 days ago
Economists have found an answer to slowing cognitive decline: Avoid retiring early, study finds
Economy
Economists have found an answer to slowing cognitive decline: Avoid retiring early, study finds
By Sasha RogelbergJuly 2, 2026
2 days ago
$25 billion CEO says one-hour interviews are a waste of time—he puts candidates through six hours of tests and wants them to order wine at lunch
Success
$25 billion CEO says one-hour interviews are a waste of time—he puts candidates through six hours of tests and wants them to order wine at lunch
By Orianna Rosa RoyleJuly 3, 2026
2 days ago
Philanthropy leader at Warren Buffett and Bill Gates’ Giving Pledge says children of billionaires are pushing them to give their wealth away faster
Success
Philanthropy leader at Warren Buffett and Bill Gates’ Giving Pledge says children of billionaires are pushing them to give their wealth away faster
By Preston ForeJune 27, 2026
7 days ago

© 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.