How many friends will Facebook have following Wednesday’s Q3 earnings release?
Despite repeated questions about its practices during last year’s US election, market-wise 2017 has been relatively drama free for Facebook. After opening at $116.38 the stock hasn’t really shown any signs that it’ll be slowing down, hitting an all-time high, and current trading price, of $177.76 last Friday. That’s a remarkable 53% rise since the start of the year, and an astonishing 366% surge from its $38 IPO price in May 2012.
It doesn’t take a genius to see why Facebook is so popular – the company’s most recent update came at the end of July, and it was a stonker. Total revenue rocketed 44.8% higher to $9.32 billion, with mobile ad revenue now comprising 87% of the total $9.16 billion made in the advertising division. Net income, meanwhile, rose an eye-watering 71% to $3.89 billion, with diluted earnings per share jumping 69% to $1.32. To cap all this off Facebook confirmed that monthly active users had risen 17% year-on-year, crossing 2 billion for the first time in the company’s history.
Wednesday’s figures are expected to be just as strong. Analysts are estimating a 41% increase in total revenue to $9.88 billion – it’s actually on track to hit $12 billion in Q4 – with adjusted earnings up 44% to $1.30 per share.
However these numbers may end up being overshadowed by something else this week. While Facebook’s role in the Russian interference in the 2016 US election is yet to impact the company’s stock price, an appearance from some of executives – alongside those from Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) and Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) – in front of the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday and Wednesday could change that.
Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) has a consensus rating of ‘Buy’ with an average target price of $185.80.
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