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Is Facebook's Earnings Beat Enough For Investors?

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg
Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images

Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) released fourth-quarter financial results after markets closed Wednesday. The social media giant said that it had $2.56 in earnings per share (EPS) and $21.08 billion in revenue, compared with consensus estimates that called for $2.53 in EPS and $20.89 billion in revenue. The same period of last year had $2.38 in EPS and $16.91 billion in revenue.

During the quarter, daily active users totaled 1.66 billion on average for December 2019, an increase of 9% year over year. At the same time, monthly active users increased by 8% to 2.50 billion.

Family daily active people (DAP) increased 11% year over year to 2.26 billion in December 2019, while family monthly active people (MAP) increased 9% to 2.89 billion. Note that these “Family” metrics represent estimates of the underlying number of unique people using one or more of Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and/or WhatsApp.

Mobile advertising revenue represented roughly 98% of advertising revenue for the fourth quarter of 2019, relatively the same level from the fourth quarter last year.

Separately, Facebook announced the authorization for a $10 billion share buyback.

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder and CEO, commented:

We had a good quarter and a strong end to the year as our community and business continue to grow. We remain focused on building services that help people stay connected to those they care about.

Shares of Facebook closed Wednesday at $223.23, in a 52-week range of $145.70 to $223.80. The consensus price target is $249.15. Following the announcement, the stock was down about 6% at $209.97 in the after-hours trading session.

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