Media

Why Analysts Are Even More Bullish on Facebook for 2016 and Beyond

Chris Lange

Published: January 30, 2016 10:15 am

Last Updated: January 13, 2020 1:53 pm

Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) posted solid fourth-quarter earnings this past week, which catapulted the stock to a new all-time high. Needless to say, analysts absolutely loved this report. 24/7 Wall St. has highlighted a few of the important points of the report and added in a montage of what analysts were saying following the report.

For the quarter, the social media company posted adjusted diluted earnings per share (EPS) of $0.79 on revenues of $5.84 billion. In the same period a year ago, it reported EPS of $0.54 on revenues of $3.85 billion. Fourth-quarter results also compare to the Thomson Reuters consensus estimates for EPS of $0.68 and $5.37 billion in revenues.

The number of daily active users rose to 1.04 billion in December. and the number of mobile daily active users rose to 934 million. December’s monthly active user total rose 14% to 1.59 billion, and the monthly mobile active user count rose 21% to 1.44 billion.

Mobile advertising revenue represented approximately 80% of advertising revenue for the fourth quarter of 2015, up from 69% of advertising revenue year-ago quarter.

24/7 Wall St.
4 Top Stocks to Buy Now That Did or Can Blow Away Earnings

• Baird has an Outperform rating and raised the target price to $120 from $116.
• Bernstein has a Market Perform rating and raised its target price to $150 from $134.
• Cowen has an Outperform rating and raised the target price to $140 from $125.
• Credit Suisse raised its target price to $140 from $135.
• Deutsche Bank has a Buy rating and raised its target price to $145 from $125.
• Evercore ISI has a Buy rating and raised the target price to $140 from $130.
• FBN Securities has an Outperform rating and raised the target price to $135 from $125.
• FBR has an Outperform rating and raised price target to $130 from $125.
• Jefferies has a Buy rating and raised the target price to $145 from $135.
• JMP Securities has an Outperform rating and raised its price target to $140 from $130.
• JPMorgan has an Overweight rating and raised its target price to $136 from $127.
• Macquarie has an Outperform rating and raised its target price to $150 from $120.
• Mizuho has a Buy rating and raised its target price to $130 from $125.
• Nomura has a Buy rating and raised the target price to $125 from $120.
• Oppenheimer has an Outperform rating and a $130 price target.
• Piper Jaffray has an Overweight rating and raised its target price to $170 from $155.
• Raymond James raised the target price to $125 from $120.
• RBC has an Outperform rating and raised the target price to $160 from $130.
• Stifel raised the target price to $130 from $120.
• SunTrust Robinson Humphreys has a Buy rating and raised the target price to $125 from $120.
• Susquehanna has a Positive rating and raised its target price to $140 from $130.
• UBS has a Buy rating and raised its target price to $130 from $125.
• Wedbush has an Outperform rating and raised its target price to $128 from $115.

Shares of Facebook hit a new 52-week high of $112.84 on Friday. The consensus analyst price target was listed as $132.25, but this may very well change. The 52-week low is $72.00.