Investors are 'universally negative' on Twitter and its future
Over the weekend reports from Re/code, The New York Times, and Business Insider indicated that several top executives were leaving the company.
CEO Jack Dorsey later tweeted to confirm some of the departures, excluding Vine head Jason Toff who had also been reported to be out at the company.
In notes to clients on Monday, Wall Street was reacting to the news and admitting that as far as they can see, there is nothing good happening at the company.
Bob Peck at SunTrust, who has a "Buy" rating and $26 price target on the stock, wrote in a note early Monday that, "Investors we speak with are almost universally negative on Twitter and its prospects."
Scott Devitt at Stifel added that, "While we may not be the sharpest tools in the shed, we don't see how the departure of the heads of three major business divisions can be viewed as a positive in the middle of an attempted business turnaround." As a result, Devitt cut his rating on the stock to "Hold" from "Buy," reversing an upgrade he'd made just a few months ago.
In reference to this quick reversal, Devitt wrote simply, "Sorry."
Business Insider's Rob Price has the full rundown of what the departed execs at Twitter have said so far. Certainly there's more to come on this.
And of course, the elephant in the room is that running Twitter isn't Dorsey's only job - he is also the CEO of publicly-traded payments company Square.
In pre-market trade on Monday shares of the company were down 4.5%. The stock closed at $17.84 on Friday. Over the last year shares of Twitter are down more than 50%.