Facebook Continues its Earnings Hot Streak, Stock at Record High (21-Month Chart)
Photo: CNET
TechCrunch — Facebook’s hot streak continued with a strong Q2 2017 earnings report. It earned $9.32 billion and $1.32 in GAAP actual EPS, compared to estimates of $9.2 billion revenue and $1.13 EPS. Revenue growth was 44.7% year-over-year, compared to 59% in Q2 2016, indicating that revenue is slowing down in line with Facebook’s warning to investors that it was running out of space to show ads in the News Feed.
For reference, here’s how Facebook’s revenue growth has declined as it reaches maximum ad load
- Q2 2017: 45%
- Q1 2017: 49%
- Q4 2016: 51%
- Q3 2016: 56%
- Q2 2016: 59%
That revenue came from Facebook’s 2.006 billion monthly users, which grew 3.4% from 1.94 billion users last quarter when its growth rate was 4.3%. Facebook now has 1.32 billion daily active users, up from 1.28 billion in Q1. and up 17% year-over-year. Facebook’s share price closed at $165.61 before earnings were announced, and after a short-lived fall, jumped 1.35% after earnings were announced to hover around $167.85 in after-hours trading.
Facebook’s profits reached $3.894 billion in Q2, up 71% year-over-year. That means Facebook made more profit than Google for the first time in history — though Google’s Q2 profit only slumped to $3.524 billion because it was slapped with a $2.7 billion antitrust fine from the EU, which it will appeal.
Facebook had costs of $4.920 billion and a 47% operating margin, compared to Q1’s $3.06 billion in profit and 41% operating margin. Its year-over-year revenue growth reached. Mobile now accounts for 87% of ad revenue, or $8 billion, compared to 85% last quarter and 84% a year ago. Total ad revenue was $9.16 billion.
During Q2, Facebook began testing a free version of its Workplace enterprise collaboration suite. This could become a powerful funnel into the paid version of the software, which may evolve into a significant revenue source for Facebook. The company hit Facebook hit 5 million advertisers and says 1 in 5 videos shared are Live.
Instagram continued its explosive growth, reaching 700 million users, 375 million users for its Direct messaging feature, and 250 million for its Snapchat Stories clone. Meanwhile, Messenger hit 1.2 billion monthly users. If Facebook can turn its enterprise, messaging, and Instagram arms into serious revenue generators, it may not matter that it’s already stuffed as many ads in News Feed as possible.
$FB 21-Month Chart:
