Twitter had a difficult earnings day yesterday, reporting strong financial results but weak user growth. Some investors immediately dumped their stock. The company lost nearly $16 per share today following the news, or around $8.7 billion dollars in market capitalization.
In its first quarterly earnings report as a public company, Twitter’s (TWTR) CEO Dick Costolo was on the defensive. The company, which has not yet turned a profit, reported strong top line revenue growth with widening losses. Twitter Wednesday reported fourth-quarter earnings of $243 million, an increase of 116% over the same period last year. The company reported a loss of $3.41 in earnings per share. For the full year, Twitter earned $665 million in revenue, an increase of 100% over last year. The company lost $1.41 in earnings per share in 2013. But the widening loss is not what sent Twitter’s stock down by 17% in after-hours trading.