Twitter stock hit a new low on Friday, as investors beat down shares of the social media company below the $20 level for the first time ever.
The new low reflects Wall Street's increasingly pessimistic outlook for the social media company, which has seen its user growth stall in recent months, as well as the broader selloff that has hit the market this past week.
"Sentiment is terrible," Pivotal Research analyst Brian Wieser told Business Insider..
"It is surprising to see what is still one of the largest digital properties on the planet trading at current levels," he said. But he noted that short of a surprising and unlikely outperformance in Twitter's business in its upcoming fourth-quarter earnings report, it's difficult to see any catalysts to change Wall Street's negative sentiment on the stock in the near term.
Twitter is trying to revamp its user growth under new CEO Jack Dorsey, who took the reins in October. But Dorsey is also the full-time CEO of digital payments company Square, raising concerns among some investors that he will not be able to provide the full-time leadership that Twitter needs at this critical juncture.
Friday's stock decline gives Twitter a market cap of roughly $13.6 billion, below the $14.2 billion valuation that the company commanded when it went public in November 2013 and a far cry from its roughly $40 billion market cap attained in the months after its IPO.
Twitter's declining value is certain to spark speculation that the company could become an acquisition target.
But Pivotal's Wieser said the company would still represent a sizable acquisition for most buyers. "I don’t know that it's gotten meaningfully cheaper today versus yesterday," he said.
"Whether you're a $10 billion, $20 billion, or $30 billion company, you're still a pretty rarefied company," said Wieser.
