Twitter did not fix its growth problem in its second quarter earnings today, including not releasing a new set of metrics to tell its reach and scale better to Wall Street.
But it did blow away all expectations, with revenue ($312 million), monthly active users (271 million) up higher than expected. Perhaps most importantly, the social communications company showed a two cent profit rather than a one cent loss expected.
As Peter Kafka reported earlier today, Twitter has had internal discussions about new ways of measuring the service. The company core user base last measured at 255 million monthly active users and investors were expecting a rise of only to 263 million to 269 million and revenue of $283 million.
It's a nice surprise by the company, which has struggled of late with management upheavals and a growing perception that it is failing to gain enough traction with consumers.
One of Twitter's big issues is that results pale in comparison to social networking behemoth Facebook ended its blockbuster Q2 with 1.3 billion monthly users — and nearly $3 billion in ad revenue.
CNBC's popular "Mad Money host Jim Cramer underscored the investor sentiment: "Frankly, I wouldn't recommend buying Twitter until it drops back to $29, a huge decline from these levels. Until then, just stick with Facebook."
Twitter execs, including outgoing CFO Mike Gupta and incoming one Anthony Noto, will hold a conference call at 2 pm PT to discuss the results
Twitter shares rose about 1.5 percent today to close at $38.49.