Analysts had expected earnings of roughly 4 cents per share on $481 million in revenue, and had low hopes for a substantial bump in user growth. But the company reported revenues of $502 million and earnings of 7 cents per share. It also reported that monthly active users had jumped to 316 million, up from 308 million in the previous quarter.
That's good news for the company which is the midst of a search for a new chief executive. This banner quarter could give that new leader much-needed time to address persistent worries about Twitter's user growth. While the social network has a devoted base of roughly 300 million users, it's been hard-pressed to recruit new people to the flock. Twitter has also been branching out, most notably buying the live-streaming service Periscope in March.
Twitter founder Jack Dorsey returned to lead the company earlier this month as interim chief executive, replacing Dick Costolo. But Dorsey is also the chief executive of Square and has been holding both roles for the past couple of months. It's not clear whether Dorsey himself is a candidate for the top job; Business Insider reported that Adam Bain, the company's president of revenue and global partnerships is currently the board's top pick for the role.
Company shares closed up more than 5 percent in Tuesday trading to $36.54 per share, then jumped another 2 percent in after-hours trading when its earnings results were released.
