Oppenheimer Initiates Coverage On Twitter, Believes Stock Is Appropriately Priced At Current Levels

Analysts at Oppenheimer initiated coverage of Twitter Inc TWTR Friday by issuing a Perform rating and setting a $36.00 price target. Twitter is a global social networking platform with over 280 million active users.

The Numbers

While Oppenheimer analysts fully recognize the strength in Twitter as a company, they believe that Twitter’s stock is appropriately priced at current levels. “While TWTR is the best Internet platform for real-time content discovery, we believe that the stock’s current valuation of 10x 2015E sales, a 52% premium to peers, fully reflects future prospects based on current growth rates.”

Insider Dumping

Between November and December 2014, Twitter insiders have sold more than $75 million of Twitter stock at prices ranging between $36 and $42 per share.

Modest Downside

Twitter stock is up about 1 percent  at $37.37 on the news. Oppenheimer's $36 price target represents about a 2.7 percent downside for the stock from current levels. Twitter stock has had a rough 2014, down more than 41 percent year-to-date.

Other Analyst Action

In November, Monness Crespi & Hardt initiated Twitter stock at Neutral and set a $40 price target. Earlier this week, Pivotal Research Group upgraded Twitter from Hold to Buy and issued a $42 target.