Facebook Befriends Strong Fourth-Quarter Earnings, Revenue
This article was originally published on ETFTrends.com.
Facebook added strong earnings and revenue as friends following the close of Wednesday's market session as the social media company bested Wall Street's expectations.
Shares of Facebook soared as much as 8 percent in after hours trading following the announcement. The earnings beat comes as welcome news after the company faced declining shares and reduced investor confidence amidst the volatile tech sell-offs near the end of 2018.
Final earnings numbers:
Earnings: $2.38 per share versus $2.19 forecast by Refinitiv consensus estimates
Revenue: $16.91 billion versus $16.39 billion forecast by Refinitiv consensus estimates
Daily active users: 1.52 billion versus 1.52 billion forecast by Refinitiv consensus estimates
Monthly active users: 2.32 billion versus 2.32 billion forecast by Refinitiv consensus estimates
Average revenue per user: $7.37 versus $7.11 forecast by FactSet estimates
ETFs to watch during Thursday's trading session include those with the biggest holdings in the social media company. These include the Communication Services Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLC) , Vanguard Telecom Services (VOX) , iShares Global Telecom (IXP) , and the Global X Social Media ETF (SOCL) .
In an effort to stop the bleeding from late last year, Zuckerberg dialed up the aggressiveness, which caused some fallout from the social media company's top executives. A report by the Wall Street Journal revealed that the embattled Zuckerberg told execs he would adopt a more aggressive stance akin to a war general amid pressure from investors and lawmakers.
Employee morale has purportedly sunk as a result of Zuckerberg's latest management shift, which came to a head when Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg was admonished during the Cambridge Analytica Scandal.
In September, lawmakers for the Senate Intelligence Committee and House Energy and Commerce Committee grilled top social media executives for Twitter and Facebook regarding efforts to parry foreign influence operations on their respective platforms. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Sandberg faced a battery of questions regarding foreign influence operations as the November midterm elections near.
Sandberg was staunch in her support of Facebook's efforts to prevent foreign influence. Sandberg's comments come as the social media giant is facing additional heat from lawmakers regarding the collection of consumer data.
“Let me be clear: we are more determined than our opponents and we will keep fighting," said Sandberg. "When bad actors try to use our site, we will block them, when content violates our policies, we will take it down, and when our opponents use new techniques, we will share them so we can strengthen our collective efforts. Everyone here knows this is an arms race and that means we need to be ever more vigilant.”
For more real estate trends, visit ETFTrends.com
POPULAR ARTICLES AND RESOURCES FROM ETFTRENDS.COM
