MACQUARIE: Twitter won't ever grow its audience (TWTR)

Jack Dorsey of Twitter, 2010

Times have been tough for Twitter.

After the social media site reported no monthly active user growth in the second quarter, the stock tanked 11% in after hours trading.

And on Friday morning, Macquarie, an Australian investment bank, sent out a note to clients saying it's likely the company won't ever grow its audience.

"The bottom line is that we don’t expect TWTR to ever grow its audience significantly," the bank said.

"We don’t think it will ever be the big number three online ad player that it was hoping to be," it added.

Ouch.

However, Twitter saw other areas of its business improve during the second quarter.

As reported by Business Insider's Alex Heath, the company was able to boost engagement among its daily users during the second quarter via more push notifications and email alerts.

Macquarie also said it was encouraged by a stronger than expected EBITDA, a key measure of a company's growth, and its video initiatives.

"Video looks somewhat promising, product execution is improving, and most importantly, we still believe that a potential partnership with FB and/or GOOG could meaningfully improve the ad quality on the platform," the bank said.

In the end, the bank thinks Twitter will be able to improve margins and sustain a profitable business model.

As such, Macquarie is maintaining its neutral stance on the stock and a $21 price target. It currently trades at $17.02 per share.