We had previously signaled that Facebook would have to blow out its earnings expectations. Thomson Reuters had the consensus estimates of $0.24 in operating earnings per share and revenues of $2.36 billion.
What is interesting is that the news of Facebook’s CFO David Ebersman departing did not act as a huge weight on the company. He will be succeeded by David Wehner, effective June 1.
Analysts have keyed in on Facebook, almost all with a positive bias. Facebook was reiterated as Buy with an $84 price target at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Credit Suisse came out with a key upgrade just on Tuesday ahead of the report, raising the Facebook rating to Outperform from Neutral with the price target raised to $87 from $65. Price target hikes were also seen elsewhere, as follows:
- To $69 at Evercore
- To $76 at Piper Jaffray
- To $77 at RBC Capital Markets
- To $77 at FBR
- To $75 at Canaccord Genuity
- To $85 at Jefferies
- To $80 at Sterne Agee
Facebook said that non-GAAP operating margin was 55% for the first quarter, up from 39% for the first quarter of 2013. Free cash flow for the first quarter of 2014 was $922 million. Cash and marketable securities were $12.63 billion at the end of the first quarter of 2014.
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WhisperNumber.com sent us a whisper number of $0.30 in earnings per share. It even said that the “whisper range” was $0.26 to $0.34 per share. Ad revenue was up 82%, daily active users (DAUs) rose 21% to 802 million and mobile DAUs rose 43% to 609 million.
Facebook shares were up by 3.65% before the open, but 10 minutes after the open the gain was 1.8% at $62.43. Shares have traded in a range of $22.67 to $72.59 in the past 52-weeks.
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