Why Did Twitter (TWTR) Stock Drop Thursday?

Twitter TWTR saw its stock price plummet as much as 8.7% Thursday on the back of unusually high trading volume. Let’s take a look at what caused the drop-off and what’s going on with Twitter at the moment.

What Happened?

Twitter stock sank Thursday after shares traded hands at nearly double TWTR’s average volume. Without much big news to speak of, and shares of Netflix NFLX, Facebook FB, and others up, it seems that concerns regarding possible conservative backlash to the platform caused the selloff.

A Politico story late Wednesday noted that Twenty-First Century Fox’s FOXA widely popular Fox News has not tweeted in roughly three weeks. Fox News has not used Twitter to post any stories or news to its 18.3 million followers since November 8.

Stories started to surface over the last few weeks that pointed out that the major news organization stopped tweeting in what seems to be a protest to Twitter’s slow response to requests to delete tweets that contained Fox host Tucker Carlson’s home address. Protestors reportedly shouted threats outside of Carlson’s home and posted his address in Washington.

The Fox News issues is part of a larger, ongoing story that has been growing for some time, which suggests that Twitter and other outlets, such as Google GOOGL, try to silence conservatives. Yet, it is unclear if Thursday’s decline had anything to do with the ongoing Fox News story. “The bullish bias of investors has been broken, and even a small news story can be used as an opportunity to sell,” head trader at U.S. Global Investors, Michael Matousek, told Bloomberg.

“The fact that Twitter didn’t participate in yesterday’s monster rally makes me think someone was liquidating a large position.”

Overview

Twitter has face increased scrutiny over its handling of “fake news” and the spread of misinformation on its platform for some time now. Still, Twitter stock has surged roughly 50% over the last 12 months.

With that said, shares of Twitter closed regular trading at down 4.37% to $31.30 per share, which represented a 34% downturn from its 52-week high of $47.79 a share.

 

 

Bottom Line

It is unclear how Facebook, Twitter, and other platforms, which have outsized control over the flow of information, will perform as negative sentiment grows from both sides of the aisle—especially if the U.S. government gets involved. Looking ahead, Twitter’s Q4 revenues are projected to climb by 18.2% to $864.87 million. Meanwhile, Twitter’s adjusted quarterly earnings are expected to soar 36.8% to touch $0.26 per share.

Twitter is currently a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) based, in part, on its recent earnings estimate revision trends.

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