Facebook stock takes a nosedive despite earnings beat on revenue and user growth

By Harrison Weber

Facebook’s stock took a nosedive after the markets closed today—initially falling by more than 6.5% during after-hours trading despite an earnings beat.

On revenue, profit, average daily users, and the money it makes per user, Facebook largely exceeded analysts’ expectations, according to estimates gathered by CNBC. But there’s more to the story. The social media company’s revenue growth has slowed in the last year. Meanwhile, Facebook’s total costs and expenses continue to do the opposite. In 2019, Facebook’s costs jumped by 51% compared to 2018, and it was the same story from 2017 to 2018.

Here are the key numbers for Facebook’s fourth (fiscal) quarter of 2019:

    Revenue: $12.08 billion

    Earnings per share: $2.56

    Daily users: an average of 1.66 billion (in December)

    Monthly users: 2.50 billion (“as of December 31”)

A milquetoast quote attributed to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg characterized the quarter as “good” and the end of Facebook’s fiscal year “strong.” Zuckerberg added, “We remain focused on building services that help people stay connected to those they care about.”

 
 

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