Facebook Inc (FB) has been wowing investors all year, and a strong quarterly report this week has ensured FB stock will keep powering higher for the rest of 2015 and beyond.
After yet another Facebook earnings beat, FB is riding 10 consecutive quarters of topping Wall Street expectations and has now beat EPS estimates in 13 of 14 reports as a public company.
No wonder Facebook stock is up 5% in early trading today to reach roughly 40% gains since the beginning of the year, putting FB at fresh all-time highs. That kind of success is impressive in any market, but it’s particularly powerful as the broader S&P 500 faces the threat of its first pair of back-to-back quarterly earnings declines since the dark days of 2009.
Here are the details: Facebook saw an 11% jump in profits on a mammoth 41% year-over-year surge in revenue. The raw numbers of 57 cents in EPS on $4.5 billion in revenue also surpassed analyst targets of 52 cents on $4.37 billion in revenue.
If the profit and sales growth weren’t enough to put smaller social firms Twitter (TWTR) and LinkedIn (LNKD) to shame, other highlights include the company’s crucial daily active users measure topping the 1 billion mark for the first time. That’s roughly three times the people Twitter sees each month and more than double the entire number of people that have even registered for LinkedIn!
Just about the only trouble spot for Facebook earnings was that total costs and expenses increased even faster than sales, up 68% thanks to an ambitious array of projects including artificial intelligence and virtual reality, among other things.
But given the success of past investments, like the shrewd purchase of Instagram for $1 billion in 2012, it’s not necessarily a bad thing to see Facebook spending big. Take this recap of stats from The Wall Street Journal to see just what FB stock has in the works right now:
“On average, videos are viewed on Facebook more than eight billion times a day, up from four billion a day in April; more than 500 million people watch daily; more than 9.5 billion photos are sent monthly on the Messenger texting app.”
In other words, Facebook stock has thrived on the power and reach of its core social media platform and existing advertising technology … but the future holds great promise as the company looks at new and different ways to monetize its massive user base.
It’s hard not to like FB stock here after such a strong showing.
Jeff Reeves is the editor of InvestorPlace.com and the author of The Frugal Investor’s Guide to Finding Great Stocks. As of this writing, he did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities. Write him at editor@investorplace.com or follow him on Twitter via @JeffReevesIP.
