Another day, another big earnings report. Yesterday, Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) is grabbing headlines after announcing the seventh consecutive quarter of beating analysts’ earnings expectations.
Notably, Facebook’s advertising revenue rose 53%, and the closely-watched mobile ad revenue number surged 69% last quarter.
Facebook also had 1.39 billion monthly active users, a 13% increase over last year. Daily Facebook users jumped 18% year over year year to 890 million while mobile Facebook users increased 26% to 1.19 billion.
For the fourth quarter, Facebook’s company-wide revenue increased 49% year-on-year to $3.85 billion. Analysts were looking for $3.77 billion in revenue. So Facebook posted a modest sales surprise.
Over the same period, FB’s net income jumped 34% to $701 million, or 25 cents per share. Excluding special items, FB’s adjusted earnings per share was 54 cents per share, which blew the consensus estimate of 48 cents per share out of the water.
Facebook is no stranger to double-digit earnings surprises. So, FB stock’s beat didn’t come as a huge surprise.
All in all, Facebook had a strong fourth-quarter report, and I consider FB stock a B-rated “buy.”
Louis Navellier is a renowned growth investor. He is the editor of five investing newsletters: Blue Chip Growth, Emerging Growth, Ultimate Growth, Family Trust and Platinum Growth. His most popular service, Blue Chip Growth, has a track record of beating the market 3:1 over the last 14 years. He uses a combination of quantitative and fundamental analysis to identify market-beating stocks. Mr. Navellier has made his proven formula accessible to investors via his free, online stock rating tool, PortfolioGrader.com. Louis Navellier may hold some of the aforementioned securities in one or more of his newsletters.
