Twitter revenue, adjusted profit beat estimates; shares rise

Twitter Inc raised the bottom end of its full-year revenue forecast as the company's push to boost advertising income paid off and it reported adjusted profit and revenue above Wall Street estimates.Twitter's shares rose 4 percent in extended trading on Tuesday.The company has been struggling to make money from direct-response ads that prompt users to take actions such as clicking on a link to an advertiser's website or downloading an app.Analysts have said Twitter makes money from its users at a much lower rate than Facebook Inc but has been improving. Twitter said it expected full-year revenue of $2.20 billion-$2.27 billion, up from its previous forecast of $2.17 billion-$2.27 billion.Twitter is also in the midst of a management change after Chief Executive Dick Costolo abruptly announced in June that he was stepping down. "Our Q2 results show good progress in monetization, but we are not satisfied with our growth in audience," said Jack Dorsey, who began serving as interim CEO on July 1.Twitter's monthly active users rose 15 percent to 316 million, the slowest growth since the company went public in 2013.Still, it beat analysts' expectations of 310 million, according to market research firm FactSet StreetAccount. Revenue rose 61 percent to $502.4 million.Excluding the impact of a strong dollar, revenue rose 68 percent. The company's net loss narrowed to $136.7 million, or 21 cents per share, in the second quarter ended June 30 from $144.6 million, or 24 cents per share, a year earlier. (bit.ly/1U4uiN9) Excluding items, Twitter earned 7 cents per share.Analysts on average had expected Twitter to earn 4 cents per share on revenue of $481.3 million, according to Thomson I/B/E/S.Twitter's shares closed at $36.54 on the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday. (Reporting by Devika Krishna Kumar in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)