Facebook stock rallies up 10.82% in Thursdays trading

Social media giant Facebook reported above expected fourth quarter results on Wednesday evening beating both their top and bottom lines. A consensus among analysts had called for revenue of around the $16.4 billion USD mark, however Facebook blew everyone away with a fourth quarter report of $16.91 Billion USD. The number of active Facebook users was a key industry metric, as Facebooks main generation of income is from running ads, and this figure was higher than analysts estimated too.

In their recent report Facebook disclosed that their service has 2.32 billion monthly active users, and 1.52 billion daily active users during the fourth quarter. According to estimates, analysts had predicted 2.32 billion on the monthly side and a slightly lower 1.51 billion daily users.

Across the board Facebook seems to have vastly out done analyst estimates with earnings of $2.38 per share reported which was marginally higher than Wall streets anticipated $2.18 per share.

In a recent statement made by CEO Mark Zuckerberg he said "Our community and business continue to grow, we’ve fundamentally changed how we run our company to focus on the biggest social issues, and we’re investing more to build new and inspiring ways for people to connect."

With the positivity surrounding Facebook Shares are rocketing showing in increase of over 10% in Thursday night’s trading which was expected. With a turbulent year seemingly behind them Facebook are really bouncing back with shares up over 25% from their Christmas Eve lows.

Investors are also very interesting in watching advertising monetization, in particular on Facebooks WhatsApp and Instagram platforms. In October of 2018 CEO Mark Zuckerberg was enthusiastic and excited about the potential growth form Instagram advertising, through their stories feature. Zuckerberg also mentioned that mobile advertising revenue accounted for over 93% of all revenue generated for Facebook in the fourth quarter, a staggering 89% jump from 2018.

Recent figures suggest that almost 3 billion people globally use Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp or Facebooks messenger platform each month as their primary form of communication. The Social media giant has faced tough times in recent years, especially in 2018 as a huge data privacy breach caused uproar from investors and potential investors alike.

With Facebook being seen in a new positive light, and recovering from a low point, is now the time for investors to get involved with one of the largest social media companies in the industry? We believe this is a definite watch for potential investors who are looking for a more long term holding.

Ronald Morris – SMS Associates