Citi Initiates Coverage On Twitter, Finds Facebook More Compelling

Citi initiated coverage on Twitter Inc. TWTR Tuesday with a Neutral rating and $53 price target.

Analyst Mark May noted that while the company “has many of the attractive growth characteristics we like, we believe it’s current valuation already reflects long-term bull-case assumptions for key metrics like user growth and monetization.”

The report also mentioned that Citi’s “proprietary survey suggests an upper limit to Twitter’s user base” and that “the consensus view that TWTR’s current user monetization is less than [Facebook’s] FB is inaccurate.”

“While TWTR’s multiple relative to its growth is lower, we believe FB represents a more compelling investment than TWTR in the online/social media sector,” according to May.

May concluded that “while quarterly MAU results are difficult to predict, stock momentum in the last five months could continue near-term as consensus estimates still appear too low.”

Twitter Inc. recently traded at $51.50, up 1.58 percent.

Facebook Inc. recently traded at $ 77.52, up 0.74 percent.