- Facebook reports a 22% annualised growth in third-quarter ad revenue.
- The world’s largest social network says it earned £2.10 per share in Q3.
- Facebook’s user base slides to 196 million in the United States & Canada.
Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) published a better than expected earnings report for the fiscal third quarter on Thursday. The company, however, said that the number of its users in Canada and the United States decreased in the recent quarter.
Facebooked initially tanked 2.5% in extended trading on Thursday but regained the loss later on. Shares of the company now have a per-share price of £217.75 that represents a close to 90% gain in the stock market since March. In comparison, Facebook was trading at £162.50 per share at the start of the year.
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Facebook’s Q3 financial results versus analysts’ estimates
According to Refinitiv, experts had forecast the company to print £15.34 billion of revenue in the third quarter. For earnings per share, their estimate was capped at £1.48. In its report on Thursday, Facebook blew past both estimates posting a higher £16.64 billion of revenue in Q3 and £2.10 of adjusted earnings per share.
In the prior quarter (Q2), the U.S. company had registered slowest growth in its revenue since its initial public offering (IPO) in 2012.
The world’s largest social network said that it had 1.82 billion daily active users (DAUs) in the recent quarter versus 1.79 billion expected. At 2.74 billion, its monthly active users (MAUs) were also more than the FactSet Consensus of 2.7 billion. Facebook earned £6.11 of average revenue per user (ARPU) in the third quarter as compared to analysts’ estimate of £5.67, as per FactSet.
Facebook’s user base slides to 196 million in the U.S. and Canada
In Canada and the United States, Facebook’s user base saw a slight decline to 196 million DAUs in Q3 versus 198 million in the prior quarter. For the fourth quarter, the social media conglomerate forecasts the number of its users to remain flat or record another decline in the two North American countries.
In Europe, its DAUs remained unchanged at 305 million. Facebook’s advertising revenue saw a 22% annualised growth in the recent quarter. At £192.95 million, the Menlo Park-based company’s “Other” revenue came in 7% lower on a year over year basis in the fiscal third quarter.
In separate news from the U.S., Pinterest also published a hawkish Q3 earnings report that resulted in a roughly 27% gain in the stock market on Thursday.
At the time of writing, Facebook is valued at £620 billion and has a price to earnings ratio of 35.83.
