Shares of Twitter Inc. TWTR, +5.12% shot up 4.5% in premarket trading Monday, after the social media company was upgraded at Deutsche Bank, with analyst Lloyd Walmsley expecting improving growth in the second half of the year and a “compelling bull case” for 2021. Walmsley raised his rating to buy from hold, and boosted his stock price target to $56 from $36.
“In our view, Twitter is well positioned to benefit from a big event landscape in 2021, expansion into more performance advertising on the back of its ad server rebuild and new [mobile app promotion] product, and an eventual high-margin subscription product,” Walmsley wrote in a note to clients. He said he had been unable to get bullish on Twitter’s stock given weak advertising channel feedback, but that has changed. “We are now starting to hear more positive feedback in the ad channel and would take advantage of the opportunity to build a position now before a stronger ad recovery takes hold and we get into the period of 2021 excitement,” Walmsley added. The stock, which is on track to open at the highest price seen during regular-session hours since April 2015, has rallied 43.2% year to date through Friday, while the S&P 500 SPX, +1.64% has gained 7.6%.