Facebook Q1 Earnings Preview: What The Street Expects

Facebook, Inc. FB is looking to keep its 2019 momentum going when the social media giant reports first-quarter earnings on Wednesday afternoon. Here’s a look at what Wall Street is expecting from Facebook.

The Numbers

Analysts are expecting Facebook to report first-quarter EPS of $1.61. Analysts are also calling for revenue of $14.97 billion, up 25 percent from a year ago. In addition, Wall Street is 2.375 billion monthly active users, 1.561 billion daily active users, and $6.37 average revenue per user.

Looking ahead to the second quarter, Wall Street analysts are expecting Facebook to guide for EPS of $1.75 on $13.36 billion in revenue.

Analyst Take

Several analysts have weighed in on Facebook ahead of earnings.

Guggenheim analyst Michael Morris is expecting a first-quarter earnings beat of $1.97.

“We believe investors will continue to gain comfort with the incremental financial risk created by content and privacy concerns while at the same time usage trends have remained solid (domestic blue app maturity offset by Instagram and global growth),” Morris wrote in a recent note.

Guggenheim has a Buy rating and $200 target for Facebook.

KeyBanc analyst Andy Hargreaves said the internet advertising duopoly of Facebook and Alphabet, Inc. GOOGGOOGL should deliver a strong quarter.

“Growth at Facebook should be supported strongly by Instagram while YouTube, cloud, and hardware maintain attractive growth at Alphabet,” Hargreaves wrote. KeyBanc is predicting a slight EPS miss of $1.58 and revenue miss of $14.83 billion from Facebook.

KeyBanc has an Overweight rating and $195 target on the stock.

Nomura Instinet analyst Mark Kelley is forecasting a slight revenue beat of $15.2 billion on the strength of 2.38 billion MAUs.

“We’ll be listening for incremental details on the company’s recent focus on messaging and what it means for the core platform,” Kelley wrote.

Nomura has a Buy rating and $215 price target for Facebook.

Volatility Ahead?

Facebook has a history of volatile earnings reactions. Last quarter, Facebook stock initially jumped 12 percent following a big earnings beat.

According to Optionslam.com, Amazon’s seven-day implied movement based on the weekly options market is 6.7 percent. Facebook shares are already up 36 percent year-to-date ahead of Wednesday’s report.

The stock closed Tuesday at $183.78 per share.

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