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Twitter (TWTR) Stock Surges to Become S&P 500's Top Monthly Gainer

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At one point during Wednesday trading hours, shares of Twitter were up more than 6%, bringing the social media company’s month-to-date gains up to 17% and giving it the strongest December rally of any stock in the S&P 500.

With no obvious news to cite for today’s surge, investors were pointing to favorable technical patterns to explain why Twitter was in the green once again. Regardless, the stock has clearly returned to favor in recent weeks, despite lingering uncertainty in broader markets.

The story of Twitter’s latest bout of momentum starts back in July. The stock had become one of 2018’s top momentum picks, tallying gains of about 90% en route to a 52-week high of $47.79 per share. But shares moved sharply lower after Twitter warned of a drop in users amid its purging of fake accounts and efforts to prevent malicious content.

While Twitter still has a long way to go if it wants to see those mid-summer levels again, it’s recent run has been impressive. Shares found a bottom in October—as the rest of the market was sputtering—and the internet company managed to rally more than 20% in what was a brutal month for most major indexes. At today’s high of $37.14, Twitter shares were nearly 39% above that October low and on track to carry some serious momentum into the New Year.

The next-best December performer in the S&P 500 is NRG Energy (NRG - Free Report) , which had gained almost 11% on the month through late afternoon trading hours Wednesday. The index itself is down more than 2.5% so far this month, as investors worried about trade disputes and global economic conditions have not quite found their “Santa Claus Rally.”

Twitter is currently sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). This is because earnings estimate revisions have been largely positive as of late. In fact, the company has witnessed 13 upward revisions against just two downward revisions to its fiscal 2018 earnings estimates within the last 60 days. Twitter is now expected to finish the year with EPS growth in excess of 84%.

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