After Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) reported first-quarter financial results late Wednesday, the first impression of this earnings report was fairly negative. However, it seems that investors have finally come around, and analysts are doing the same.
24/7 Wall St. has included some brief highlights from the earnings report, as well as what a few analysts are saying after the fact.
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. That compared with consensus estimates from Thomson Reuters of $1.12 in EPS and revenue of $7.83 billion. The same period of last year reportedly had EPS of $0.77 and $5.38 billion in revenue.
Daily active users 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 totaled 1.94 billion, up 17%.
Mobile advertising revenue constituted roughly 85% of advertising revenue for the quarter, up from 82% in the first quarter of 2016.
On the books, Facebook’s cash, 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.
After the report a few analysts weighed in on Facebook:
- Needham reiterated a Buy rating with a $165 price target.
- Goldman Sachs has a Buy rating with a $180 price target.
- Piper Jaffray reiterated an Overweight rating and raised its target to $165 from $160.
- Canaccord Genuity reiterated a Buy rating and raised its target from $155 to $175.
- Robert Baird reiterated an Outperform rating with a $163 price target.
- Pacific Crest reiterated an Overweight rating and a $155 price target.
- William Blair reiterate an Outperform rating
- Atlantic Securities has a Buy rating and a $172 price target.
- JMP Securities has a Buy rating and a $170 price target.
- Oppenheimer also has a Buy rating with a $170 price target.
- Cantor Fitzgerald has a Buy rating and a $180 price target.
- Macquarie has an Outperform rating and a $160 price target.
- JPMorgan reiterated it at Overweight but raised its target from $170 to $182.
- Cowen reiterated an Outperform rating and raised its target to $170 from $156.
Shares of Facebook were last seen down fractionally at $151.44 on Thursday, with a consensus analyst price target of $162.72 and a 52-week trading range of $108.23 to $153.60.
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