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Analysts raised their price targets and heaped praise on Faceboo k ( FB ) following its first-quarter earnings report after the close Wednesday that exceeded all expectations. Among stats analysts pointed to was booming growth in mobile advertising. Mobile accounted for 82% of ad revenue at Facebook, up from 80% in Q4 and up from 73% in Q1 2015. During a tough earnings season for tech companies like Apple ( AAPL ), Alphabet ( GOOGL ), and Twitter ( TWTR ), Facebook stood out from the pack. The social-networking leader’s Q1 revenue jumped 52% year over year to $5.38 billion. Earnings per share minus items surged 83% to 77 cents. Growth in the top and bottom lines accelerated for the third consecutive quarter. “Ad growth remains explosive,” wrote Nomura analyst Anthony DiClemente, who raised his price target to 145 from 135. Facebook stock was up 8.5%, near 118, in afternoon trading in the stock market today , and earlier hit a new all-time high above 120. With robust results across all major advertising platforms, Facebook now has 3 million active advertisers, up from 2.5 million in its last update, and has 200,000 on Instagram. Facebook Has ‘Many Growth Levers Left To Pull’ RBC Capital Markets analyst Mark Mahaney raised his price target to 165 from 160. “Facebook continues to generate very high and very profitable growth, an extremely rare combination,” Mahaney wrote. “And we see in Facebook plenty of strong, secular platform growth ahead, with many growth levers left to pull.” Monthly active users at Faceboook grew 15% year over year to 1.65 billion, the fastest growth rate in two years and accelerating from 14% growth in Q4. “This overall growth rate remains impressive, given Facebook’s massive size,” Mahaney wrote. He noted Facebook’s 1.65 billion users do not include Instagram’s 400 million users, or the 1 billion monthly active users on its WhatsApp messaging platform. Alphabet is the only other global media company with properties above 1 billion, he wrote. FBN Securities analyst Shebly Seyrafi raised his price target on Facebook to 155 from 135. “Having succeeded very well on its transition to mobile, Facebook has many growth drivers ahead,” Seyrafi wrote. This includes Instagram, Messenger, video and its Oculus Rift virtual reality business, with WhatsApp further down the road. Cowen analyst John Blackledge raised his price target on Facebook to 145 from 140. Jefferies analyst Brian Pitz raised his price target to 160 from 145. The Word From Facebook CEO Zuckerberg: Bold In the company’s earnings conference call with analysts, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg touched on some of the opportunities ahead. “Facebook has been built by a series of bold moves,” Zuckeberg said. “And when I look out at the future, I see more bold moves ahead. “A lot of what we’re building today in areas like connectivity, artificial intelligence and virtual and augmented reality may not pay off for years. But they’re important to our mission of connecting the world, and I’m committed to seeing this mission through and to leading Facebook there over the long term,” Zuckerberg said. Among social networking stocks, Facebook earnings towered above those of Twitter. The micro-blog site posted a Q1 revenue miss and gave Q2 revenue guidance well below expectations. Twitter said monthly active users rose to 310 million, up 3% year over year and up from 305 million in Q4. But that marked the ninth straight quarter of slowing year-over-year user growth. LinkedIn ( LNKD ), the networking site for professionals, reports earnings after the close Thursday. LinkedIn saw its stock bomb 44% to a three-year low after the company reported fourth-quarter earnings on Feb. 5, as its Q1 guidance widely missed estimates. The Q1 consensus estimate for LinkedIn is revenue of $828.5 million, up 30% year over year. Scalper1 News
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