Exactly three months ago, with its stock trading at $218, or 50% higher than where it is now, Facebook shocked Wall Street with a second-quarter revenue miss and a warning that growth would slow while profits shrank as spending rose which sent its stock crashing more than 20%, wiping out $132 billion in market cap – the biggest single-day shareholder value loss in history. Fast forward to today, when with the company’s Q3 earnings due, investors will be watching user growth and engagement numbers, expenses and of course, profits closely. The top wish: no more surprises.
They did not quite get that when moments ago Facebook reported a revenue miss, an earnings beat (thanks to a low tax rate), while both daily and monthly average users missed, and rather badly at that. Here are the Q3 details:
Some more details from the latest report:
But the biggest problem may be that Facebook’s costs, as feared, indeed soared, jumping from $5.2BN a year ago to $7.9BN, up 52%.
Commenting on the results, FB CEo Jeff Zuckerberg said that “Our community and business continue to grow quickly, and now more than 2 billion people use at least one of our services every day,” He added that “we’re building the best services for private messaging and stories, and there are huge opportunities ahead in video and commerce as well.”
Digging into the details, US and Canada DAUs were flat for the second quarter in a row at 185MM, while Europe posted a second consecutive decline.
In kneejerk reaction, the stock was first down, then modestly higher after hours, a far cry from the 20% plunge a quarter ago.
