NEW YORK: Twitter shares surged in morning trade after the messaging platform eased investor concerns with a quarterly report showing strong user growth and robust revenues.

In the first half hour of trading, Twitter rallied 20 percent to $46.15, the highest levels since March.

The company’s shares were up 27 percent at $48.95 in premarket trading. At that price, Twitter is valued at about $29 billion, or about $6 billion more than at Tuesday’s close.

Up to Tuesday’s close, the company had lost nearly half of its value since its shares hit a record high of $74.73 in December. The stock went public at $26 per share.

Investors focused on the number of monthly active users hitting 271 million, up 24 percent when compared with the same period a year earlier.

Revenues meanwhile leapt to $312 million, and the market appeared the shrug off Twitter’s widening loss at $145 million.

Youssef Squali at Cantor Fitzgerald called the financial results “very strong” and added that “what’s more important is that the drivers for this growth seem sustainable, implying faster-than-expected growth and margin over time.”

Ross Sandler, analyst at Deutsche Bank, said the quarterly figures appear to have calmed skepticism about Twitter. He said that fundamentals for Twitter “are all trending in the right direction” and said the opportunity for the company is “under-appreciated.”

After Twitter’s successful public offering last year, the stock surged to over $70, but since then skeptics have wondered whether it can grow its user base and become profitable.

Daniel Ernst at Hudson Square Research nevertheless maintained his “sell” rating for Twitter, saying that “the platform is not likely as applicable to as broad an audience” as Facebook. “While we see no obvious negative catalyst near term, expectations are rising and... Twitter in our view is grossly overvalued.”

Twitter’s user growth stagnated after it went public to much fanfare in November, leading to a management shake-up that included the exit of Chief Operating Officer Ali Rowghani.

“This quarter’s results take away one of the major bear arguments for the stock, namely that the user base is small and maturing,” Janney Capital Markets analysts said in a report.

At least four brokerages raised their ratings on the stock, while at least 17 raised price targets, by as much as $18 to a high of $65, after the company reported results on Tuesday. Advertisement revenue more than doubled to $277 million.

Twitter blew past Wall Street expectations in almost every measure in the quarter.

Timeline views, a measure of user engagement, increased 15 percent. Analysts had expected about 8 percent.

“We continue to believe we are in the early stages of a very long growth cycle for Twitter as it leverages cultural ubiquity, invests in product and technology, and grows the platform,” Goldman Sachs analysts wrote in a note.

Goldman maintained its “buy” rating on the stock and raised its price target to $63 from $52.

Twitter shares closed at $38.59 on the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday.