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Analysts Are Seriously Back to Liking Facebook After Earnings
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Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) managed to have a solid earnings report during the week of February 1, 2019. The solid gain in the shares should work to temper at least some of the negative issues when evaluating the actual pressure being applied to its business. The social media leader’s share price had traded up 4.3% to $150.42 ahead of earnings, but Facebook posted double-digit percentage gains afterward.
It reported $2.38 in earnings per share (EPS) and $16.9 billion in revenue for the fourth quarter. The Thomson Reuters consensus estimates had called for EPS of $2.19 and $16.4 billion in revenue. The same period of last year reportedly had $1.44 in EPS and $12.97 billion in revenue.
Facebook’s daily active users totaled 1.52 billion on average for the quarter ending in December 2018, an increase of 9% year over year. Its monthly active users totaled 2.32 billion, an increase of 9%. Mobile advertising revenue represented roughly 93% of advertising revenue, up from 89% in the fourth quarter of 2017.
247/ Wall St. tracked multiple analyst calls after Facebook’s report. Most of these calls included increased targets, but at least a few maintained some caution.
Note that when Wedbush Securities maintained its Outperform rating but lowered its price target to $200 from $220, the firm cited the earnings beat and that Facebook continues to get likes from users and advertisers alike.
Other calls with cautious ratings:
Shares of Facebook rose by more than 10% to close at $166.69 on Thursday, in a 52-week range of $123.02 to $218.62 and with a prior consensus price target of $184.67. Facebook shares traded up fractionally at $166.90 late on Friday.
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