$TWTR Clown Plunges Towards All-Time Lows; Analysts Cast Them Aside as a House of Ill Repute

Monetization is slowing. The Twitter is dying. The company is a house of ill repute.

Shares are plunging by more than 15% this morning, on much worse than expected quarterly results.

The analyst community are casting wide aspersions this morning.

Mizuho Securities notes, so far, 2016 is not looking rosy for the blue bird. MAUs were up only 5m sequentially, revenue came at the low end of guide and below expectations due to weakness from brand advertisers, and the 2Q revenue guide implies very modest sequential growth. Firm maintains Neutral rating given that it does not see any material near-term catalysts, but certain products/ad units could drive growth later this year or in early 2017. Firm is impressed by the product innovation at Twitter since Jack Dorsey took over, but the business model continues to lag. Remain on the sidelines for now.

Pivotal Research notes weak 1Q16 results and 2Q16 results suggest a worse-than-expected 2016 and longer-term growth trajectory. Despite firm’s own confidence in the still-favorable prospects of the business, investor confidence is unlikely to return any time soon. Continue to rate Twitter Buy, but reduce price target from $39 to $27 on a YE2016 basis. Advertising as-reported was up by +37%, constrained slightly by foreign exchange down from a +48% growth rate in 4Q15. More concerning than the deceleration was that O&O ad revenue grew by only +23%. Conservative guidance for the current quarter is sensible

RBC Capital notes Organic Rev growth is clearly decelerating; all-important MAUs are showing limited growth (though was a bit ahead of Street). Maintain Sector Perform, but lower ests and tgt to $20 from $23. Q4 Keys- 1) Better than Expected MAUs, firm remains cautious on TWTR’s ability to show meaningful user growth; 2) Continued Revenue Growth Deceleration; 3) Strong Margins; 4) Monetization Slowing.