WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Facebook Inc. (FB) Wednesday reported a fourth-quarter profit that trumped Wall Street estimates, driven largely by higher-than expected revenues reflecting strong growth in ad revenues. However, shares of the social media giant slipped 7% in the after-hours session on due its slowing growth.
Menlo Park, California-based Facebook's fourth-quarter profit rose to $7.35 billion or $2.56 per share from $6.88 billion or $2.38 per share last year. On average, 44 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters estimated earnings of $2.53 per share for the quarter.
Revenues for the quarter surged 25 percent to $21.08 billion from $16.91 billion last year. Analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $20.89 billion for the quarter. The 25% increase was the slowest-ever quarterly sales growth for Facebook.
Daily active users were up 9 percent to 1.66 billion on average for December 2019, while monthly active users increased 8 percent to 2.50 billion. Total advertising revenues surged 25 percent to $20.74 billion.
Revenues of Facebook, the world's most popular social networking site, continues to rise every quarter as companies and other firms continue to spend heavily to advertise on the social network. However, Facebook had previously warned that it cannot sustain the growth at the same rate in the future.
'We had a good quarter and a strong end to the year as our community and business continue to grow,' said Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder and CEO. 'We remain focused on building services that help people stay connected to those they care about.'
FB closed Wednesday's trading at $223.23, up $5.44 or 2.50%, on the Nasdaq. The stock, however, slipped $15.65 or 7.01% in the after-hours trading.
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