Trader: Twitter is easily a $50 stock
- JPMorgan raises its target on Twitter to $50 based on "strong ad momentum"
- Firm believes company can grow ad revenue 20%+ in the next few years, helped by the push into video and live events.
- The San Francisco-based company is on pace for its best quarter and year on record since going public in 2013.
Twitter hit its highest level in more than three years on Tuesday as JPMorgan raised its target on the stock to $50 -- a 20.7% upside from Monday's closing price.
"We are raising our estimates on Twitter shares as we believe advertising momentum is strengthening, particularly among large marketers...TWTR remains 1 of our top ideas, along with Facebook and Amazon, and is on the JPM Analyst Focus List," JPMorgan analyst Doug Anmuth wrote in a note to clients.
The firm sees the upcoming world cup in Russia as a key source of advertising revenue for Twitter.
"The World Cup is one of the world's most watched events, and we believe Twitter will serve as a powerful platform for fans to learn 'What's Happening Now' and to engage in conversation around matches," Anmuth wrote.
Nuveen Managing Director and Twitter shareholder Stephanie Link echoed the importance of Twitter's push into video streaming on Tuesday's "Halftime Report."
"The investments are starting to pay off. They made all this push, especially into video, so they have high expense rate levels and now they're starting to see the results. You're starting to see maybe some operating leverage in the model."
Twitter's been on a tear, up more than eighty percent this year, which means expectations from investors and the Street are also rising. But "Halftime Report" trader Pete Najarian doesn't necessarily view this as a negative, since he believes we are still in the early innings of Twitter's ad growth.
"The second half of the year...that's where you'll continue to see the acceleration in ad growth. I think this is very easily a $50 stock," he argued.
Despite Twitter's recent outperformance -- on pace for its best month since February 2015 and its best quarter on record -- it is still sharply below its all-time intraday high of $74.73, hit on December 26, 2013. But after evaluating the stock from a technical basis, Joe Terranova believes the stock might be heading back towards that key $74 level.
"The fundamental turn for this company was two quarters ago...once you get that fundamental turn you get the momentum players coming back in...There's plenty of run in this stock if you look at the chart...we're only halfway at $44 right now back to that high level from 2013. So there's plenty of upside potential on a technical basis," he said.
Twitter was added to the S&P on Thursday, June 7th, and it is currently the index's third best-performing stock this year, behind ABIOMED and Netflix.
Stephanie Link owns Twitter.