Goldman Sees Execution Risks At Twitter

• Shares of Twitter Inc TWTR have declined 58.63 percent over the past one year, dropping to a low of $16.69 on January 19.
• Heath P. Terry of Goldman Sachs has maintained a Buy rating on the company, while lowering the price target from $40 to $28.
• Although Twitter continues to hold value as a platform meaningfully beyond its current market of $12 billion, Terry expressed concern regarding the “continuing management instability.”

Analyst Heath Terry mentioned that head of Vine, Jason Toff, has announced his departure on Twitter on January 24, while CEO Jack Dorsey has confirmed of four other executives on the same day.

The four other executives leaving the company as part of its restructuring initiative include SVP of Product, Kevin Weil; SVP of Engineering, Alex Roetter; Head of Human Resources, Brian Schipper; and VP of Global Media, Katie Stanton.

Terry believes that this instability would “further delay the development of the technology and product that Twitter needs to drive user growth, engagement, and monetization.”

According to the Goldman Sachs report, COO Adam Bain is to assume the responsibility for Twitter’s revenue-related product, media and HR, although on an interim basis. CTO Adam Messinger is to lead all engineering, design and research, product, user services and Fabric, all in one group.

“With continued uncertainty around Twitter’s strategy, corporate structure and, by extension, growth prospects, we lower our estimates for MAU growth, and lower our 2016-17 revenue estimates by 5 percent and our adjusted EBITDA estimates by 4 percent on average,” Terry added.