Media

Facebook Slips Despite Solid Q1 Earnings Beat

Chris Lange

Published: May 3, 2017 4:48 pm

Last Updated: January 12, 2020 12:21 pm

Facebook, Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) reported first-quarter financial results after markets closed Wednesday. The social media giant said that it had $1.04 in GAAP-earnings per share (EPS) ($1.23 in non-GAAP EPS) and $8.03 billion in revenue, compared with consensus estimates from Thomson Reuters that called for $1.12 in EPS and $7.83 billion in revenue. The same period from last year had $0.77 in EPS and $5.38 billion in revenue.

Keep in mind that Facebook is no longer reporting non-GAAP financial measures such as expenses, income, tax rate, and EPS.

During this quarter, daily active users (DAUs) totaled 1.28 billion on average for March 2017, which was an increase of 18% from last year. At the same time, monthly active users (MAUs) totaled 1.94 billion up 17%.

Mobile advertising revenue constituted roughly 85% of advertising revenue for the quarter, up from 82% of advertising revenue in the first quarter of 2016.

Capital expenditures for the first quarter of 2017 were $1.27 billion.

On the books, cash and cash equivalents and marketable securities were $32.31 billion at the end of the first quarter of 2017 compared with $29.45 billion at the end of December 2016.

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder and CEO, kept it short and sweet saying:

We had a good start to 2017. We’re continuing to build tools to support a strong global community.

Shares of Facebook closed Wednesday down 0.6% at $151.80, with a consensus analyst price target of $161.72 and a 52-week trading range of $108.23 to $153.48. Following the release of the earnings report, the stock was initially down 1.5% at $149.49 in the after-hours trading session.