Twitter's First Earnings Report Disappoints Investors

In less than 140 characters, here's the Twitter scoop:

#Twitter loses $half-billion. Excluding one-time charges, 2 cents share profits. Revenue beats expectations. TWTR tumbles on user growth.

Here's AP's needlessly wordy version:

NEW YORK (AP) — Twitter beat Wall Street's earnings and revenue expectations in its first quarter as a public company. But investors were looking for even more -- including more user growth -- and the company's stock dipped as much as 12 percent in after-hours trading Wednesday.

Twitter reported a loss of $511 million, or $1.41 per share, in the October-December quarter. That compares with a loss of $8.7 million, or 7 cents per share, a year earlier. Adjusted earnings were 2 cents per share.

Twitter's revenue more than doubled to $243 million from $112 million.

FactsSet says analysts expected an adjusted loss of 2 cents per share and revenue of $218.1 million.

Twitter ended the quarter with 241 million monthly users, up 30 percent from a year earlier. That's slightly fewer than some analysts expected. Sterne Agee's Arvind Bhatia was looking for 244 million users, an increase of 32 percent.

San Francisco-based Twitter Inc. made its Wall Street debut in November with an initial public offering price of $26. The stock price has more than doubled since. Analysts remain confident about Twitter's business and long-term prospects, but many are calling its stock expensive.

Twitter's shares fell $7.32, or 11 percent, to $58.65 in extended trading after the results came out. The stock, which peaked at $74.73 on Dec. 26, closed Wednesday's regular trading session at $65.97.