Twilio shares target raised, holds buy on AI-driven growth

Published 23/08/2024, 15:28
Twilio shares target raised, holds buy on AI-driven growth

On Friday, Tigress Financial Partners increased its 12-month price target for Twilio (NYSE:TWLO) to $85, upholding a Buy rating on the stock. The firm highlighted Twilio's sustained innovation and expanding integration of predictive and generative AI functionality as key drivers of growing customer adoption, which in turn accelerates revenue and cash flow growth.

Twilio recently reported a 4% year-over-year increase in second-quarter revenue, reaching a record $1.08 billion. This growth included a 7% organic rise in communications revenue, which totaled $1.01 billion, while Segment revenue saw a 3% year-over-year increase to $75.2 million. The company's active customer accounts also saw a rise of 3.9%, surpassing 316,000.

The analyst pointed out that Twilio's key products, such as Voice Intelligence, leverage AI to enhance deliverability and customer engagement. The platform's innovations, including the traffic optimization engine and engagement suite, incorporate AI and machine learning to improve customer interactions.

Twilio has also been forming new partnerships and extending existing ones with companies like Omnisend, Airship AI (AISP-US), Bloomreach, Braze (BRZE-US), Insider, and Klaviyo (NYSE:KVYO) (KVLO-US).

Twilio's focus on higher-margin software products that utilize AI, including Verify and Voice Intelligence, is expected to continue to drive success. The company's ability to work with proprietary customer data sets using AI for personalization is anticipated to unlock significant growth, particularly in voice services. Twilio's embedded AI capabilities also play a crucial role in consumer protection, with products like Fraud Guard and Verify seeing good activity.

The firm also noted Twilio's strong position in the market for automated user interaction and its industry-leading Call Center as a Service (CCaaS) platform. Ongoing investments in R&D, new product introductions, strong brand equity, cost savings initiatives, and operational efficiencies are expected to contribute to margin expansion, increasing cash flow, and higher profitability. These factors are projected to yield greater returns on capital and drive significant shareholder value creation.

Finally, Twilio has completed over $2.2 billion in share repurchases and aims to finish the remaining $800 million under its current authorization by the end of this year. The firm's new price target reflects a potential return of 44% from current stock levels.

In other recent news, Twilio, a key player in the cloud communications industry, reported a strong second-quarter performance for 2024, with revenues reaching $1.1 billion. This robust performance was largely driven by Twilio's Communications business, which includes messaging and email services, and contributed $1.01 billion to the overall revenue. In addition, the company generated nearly $200 million in free cash flow and achieved a record non-GAAP gross profit of $577 million.

In terms of future expectations, Twilio plans to complete a $3 billion share repurchase program by the end of the year and anticipates revenue between $1.085 billion and $1.095 billion for Q3. However, the company does foresee modest headwinds for the remainder of 2024, with an estimated negative impact of around 90 basis points in Q3 and 80 basis points for the full year.

Despite these challenges, Twilio continues to focus on partnerships, self-service enhancements, and cross-selling opportunities to increase growth rates. The company is also leveraging AI and machine learning to enhance personalized customer interactions, which is expected to further boost its growth trajectory.

InvestingPro Insights

Twilio's strategic focus on AI and machine learning to enhance customer engagement has been recognized by Tigress Financial Partners, setting a bullish 12-month price target. Supporting this optimism, InvestingPro data reveals a market capitalization of $9.63 billion, indicating the company's substantial presence in the industry. Despite a negative P/E ratio of -17.74, which reflects the company's current lack of profitability, Twilio's revenue growth remains positive with a 4.62% increase over the last twelve months as of Q2 2024.

InvestingPro Tips spotlight Twilio's financial prudence, as the company holds more cash than debt on its balance sheet, and management's confidence, as evidenced by aggressive share buybacks. Furthermore, 24 analysts have revised their earnings upwards for the upcoming period, suggesting a consensus belief in Twilio's potential for profitability this year. These factors, combined with the company's high shareholder yield and valuation implying a strong free cash flow yield, may offer additional confidence to investors.

For those seeking a deeper dive into Twilio's financial health and future prospects, InvestingPro provides an extensive list of additional tips, ensuring that investors are well-informed. As the company continues to innovate and integrate AI into its offerings, these insights could be crucial for understanding Twilio's trajectory and the potential for shareholder value creation.

This article was generated with the support of AI and reviewed by an editor. For more information see our T&C.

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