Facebook Stock Tumbles 6.5% After It Posts Slowest Revenue Growth Ever

Sean Burch
·2 min read

A good quarter wasn’t good enough for Facebook, with the tech giant’s stock price falling 6.5% in early trading on Thursday, a day after the company reported its Q4 earnings.

The issue, for some on Wall Street, seems to be Facebook’s lagging growth. The company topped analyst revenue projections by reporting more than $21 billion in Q4 sales, but that marked “only” a 25% year-over-year increase; a year prior, it grew revenue by 30% year-over-year. The fourth quarter ended up being Facebook’s slowest growth period since going public in mid-2012 — a fact that looks to be pulling the stock down, despite pulling in about $70 billion in revenue for all of 2019.

Facebook’s morning tumble brought the company down to about $209 per share; the company, heading into Wednesday afternoon, was trading at its all-time high of about $224 per share.

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Earnings also narrowly topped analyst estimates for Facebook in Q4, with the company posting $2.56 earnings per share. The company added another 1 million daily active users in the U.S. and Canada, its strongest sales market, bringing it to 190 million domestic DAUs. Overall, Facebook pushed to 1.66 billion DAUs, up 9% year-over-year, and its monthly user base hit 2.5 billion after entering the quarter at 2.45 billion.

Facebook, in its letter to shareholders, said 2.89 billion people each month use one of its apps, which includes WhatsApp and Instagram. Even with an increased focus on running ads on Instagram, Facebook did not mention how much the popular pictures-and-messaging app contributed towards its Q4 ad sales.

On Thursday’s earnings call, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the company is “very focused” on keeping foreign actors from spreading misinformation ahead of the 2020 U.S. election. His comment came a few weeks after presidential hopeful Joe Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi both ripped him and the company for its handling of political ads.

Read original story Facebook Stock Tumbles 6.5% After It Posts Slowest Revenue Growth Ever At TheWrap