Shares of Facebook were up marginally through early afternoon trading hours on Tuesday, just one day before the company is scheduled to release its fiscal fourth quarter earnings report. All eyes are always on the Mark Zuckerberg-led social media giant, but Wednesday’s earnings announcement should attract significant attention given the latest drama surrounding the company.
Facebook has been one of the strongest blue chip tech stocks on Wall Street over the past year, but that is not why the firm has grabbed headlines. Instead, Facebook has been embroiled in several of its fiercest public relations scandals on record.
The latest round of public criticism of Facebook centers on the company’s failure to properly vet content on its website.
As it turns out, the social media platform was a key battleground in Russia’s campaign to influence the 2016 U.S. election, and several major reports have found that many Facebook users were exposed to propaganda-like content. In its previous earnings release, Facebook promised to tackle the problem head on.
“We're serious about preventing abuse on our platforms. We're investing so much in security that it will impact our profitability. Protecting our community is more important than maximizing our profits,” Zuckerberg said.
Facebook’s pledge to address this problem is probably good news for its user experience. However, any news that a company is going to increase spending is sure to scare investors.
Still, our current Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for Facebook to post adjusted earnings of $1.96 per share and revenues of $12.58 billion. These results would mark year-over-year growth rates of 39% and 43%, respectively.
So how is it that Facebook can manage to generate such strong top and bottom line growth in the face of the aforementioned headwinds? Well, the secret lies in the company’s remarkable ability to expand in key markets.
To help investors prepare for this, we can turn to our exclusive non-financial metrics estimate file. The Zacks Consensus NFM file contains detailed estimate data for business segment metrics and non-financial metrics reported by companies. For more info on our file, check out zacks.com/non-financial-metrics.
One of the most important aspects of Facebook’s current expansion is its growth in major geographic areas, including the Asia-Pacific region. With several population-rich countries still expanding their access to the internet, Asia has proven to be a major source of growth for Facebook.
Our current consensus estimates are calling for Facebook to report Asia-Pacific revenues of $2.040 billion for the fourth quarter which would represent growth of 51.2% from the year-ago period. Last quarter, Facebook reported growth 52.5% in this region.
For more clues on where Facebook’s fourth-quarter growth will come from, check out our full guide: 3 Key Estimates for Facebook's Q4 Earnings Report
Want more analysis from this author? Make sure to follow @Ryan_McQueeneyon Twitter!
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The most popular cryptocurrency skyrocketed last year, giving some investors the chance to bank 20X returns or even more. Those gains, however, came with serious volatility and risk. Bitcoin sank 25% or more 3 times in 2017.
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Why Asia Is the Key to Facebook's Q4 Earnings Report
Shares of Facebook were up marginally through early afternoon trading hours on Tuesday, just one day before the company is scheduled to release its fiscal fourth quarter earnings report. All eyes are always on the Mark Zuckerberg-led social media giant, but Wednesday’s earnings announcement should attract significant attention given the latest drama surrounding the company.
Facebook has been one of the strongest blue chip tech stocks on Wall Street over the past year, but that is not why the firm has grabbed headlines. Instead, Facebook has been embroiled in several of its fiercest public relations scandals on record.
The latest round of public criticism of Facebook centers on the company’s failure to properly vet content on its website.
As it turns out, the social media platform was a key battleground in Russia’s campaign to influence the 2016 U.S. election, and several major reports have found that many Facebook users were exposed to propaganda-like content. In its previous earnings release, Facebook promised to tackle the problem head on.
“We're serious about preventing abuse on our platforms. We're investing so much in security that it will impact our profitability. Protecting our community is more important than maximizing our profits,” Zuckerberg said.
Facebook’s pledge to address this problem is probably good news for its user experience. However, any news that a company is going to increase spending is sure to scare investors.
Still, our current Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for Facebook to post adjusted earnings of $1.96 per share and revenues of $12.58 billion. These results would mark year-over-year growth rates of 39% and 43%, respectively.
So how is it that Facebook can manage to generate such strong top and bottom line growth in the face of the aforementioned headwinds? Well, the secret lies in the company’s remarkable ability to expand in key markets.
To help investors prepare for this, we can turn to our exclusive non-financial metrics estimate file. The Zacks Consensus NFM file contains detailed estimate data for business segment metrics and non-financial metrics reported by companies. For more info on our file, check out zacks.com/non-financial-metrics.
One of the most important aspects of Facebook’s current expansion is its growth in major geographic areas, including the Asia-Pacific region. With several population-rich countries still expanding their access to the internet, Asia has proven to be a major source of growth for Facebook.
Our current consensus estimates are calling for Facebook to report Asia-Pacific revenues of $2.040 billion for the fourth quarter which would represent growth of 51.2% from the year-ago period. Last quarter, Facebook reported growth 52.5% in this region.
For more clues on where Facebook’s fourth-quarter growth will come from, check out our full guide: 3 Key Estimates for Facebook's Q4 Earnings Report
Want more analysis from this author? Make sure to follow @Ryan_McQueeneyon Twitter!
Don’t Even Think About Buying Bitcoin Until You Read This
The most popular cryptocurrency skyrocketed last year, giving some investors the chance to bank 20X returns or even more. Those gains, however, came with serious volatility and risk. Bitcoin sank 25% or more 3 times in 2017.
Zacks’ has just released a new Special Report to help readers capitalize on the explosive profit potential of Bitcoin and the other cryptocurrencies with significantly less volatility than buying them directly.
See 4 crypto-related stocks now >>