Is Facebook Turning Into the New Google?

Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) reported fiscal second-quarter financial results after the markets closed on Wednesday. The company said it had $0.77 in earnings per share (EPS) on $5.4 billion in revenue, versus Thomson Reuters consensus estimates that called for $0.62 in EPS on $5.26 billion in revenue. The same period from last year had $0.42 in EPS on $3.54 billion in revenue.

Daily Active Users (DAUs) totaled 1.09 billion for March, an increase of 16% from last year, while mobile DAUs were 989 million, an increase of 24%. Monthly Active Users (MAUs) were 1.65 billion at the end of the quarter, an increase of 15%. At the same time, mobile MAUs totaled 1.51 billion, an increase of 21%.

Perhaps the biggest announcement from the earnings report was that the board of directors had approved a proposal “to amend and restate” its existing certificate of incorporation to create a new class of non-voting capital stock, known as the Class C capital stock. In other words, Facebook is taking a similar approach to that which Google  — now Alphabet — had taken in the past to restructure its shares and create multiple classes of stock.

The whole point of the restructuring is to create a capital structure that will allow the company to remain focused on its long-term vision or objectives. However, the adoption of the proposal is still subject to the approval of its stockholders at the 2016 Annual Meeting of Stockholders, which will be held on June 20.
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Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder and CEO, commented:

We had a great start to the year. We’re focused on our 10 year roadmap to give everyone in the world the power to share anything they want with anyone.

Free cash flow for the quarter was $1.85 billion. On the books, cash, equivalents and marketable securities totaled $20.62 billion at the end of the quarter.

Shares of closed Tuesday at $108.89, with a consensus analyst price target of $135.30 and a 52-week trading range of $72.00 to $117.59. Following the release of the earnings report the stock was initially up 7.5% at $117.08 in the after-hours trading session.