How Facebook Shares Trade Following Q4 Earnings

Facebook, Inc. FB is reporting its fiscal fourth-quarter earnings after Wednesday's close.

Benzinga took a look back at Facebook’s other six fourth-quarter earnings reports to look for any potential patterns in how the stock reacts.

Q4 2017: shares up 3.3 percent the first day following the report

• Q4 2016: down 1.7 percent
• Q4 2015: up 15.5 percent
• Q4 2014: down 2.3 percent
• Q4 2013: up 14.1 percent
• Q4 2012: down 0.8 percent

Related Link: Facebook Q4 Earnings Preview: User Stability, Ad Growth Would Mark Strong Quarter

Most initial fourth-quarter earnings reactions have been relatively modest, but many of Facebook’s most volatile trading sessions of the past eight years have happened within two days of an earnings release. The charts below show Facebook’s largest single-day gains and losses of the past eight years. The dates highlighted by the red boxes indicate trading sessions that occurred within two days of a quarterly earnings report.

Here are some potential takeaways from the information outlined above:

• Facebook tends to have volatile earnings reactions, and two of its four largest single-day gains in history came in response to Q4 earnings.
• Facebook stock has typically moved up or down more than 2 percent on the day following Q4 earnings.
• Three of Facebook’s last four earnings reports have generated a positive market reaction, but the lone exception was a massive 18.9 percent post-earnings sell-off following the Q2 2018 report.

According to Optionslam.com, Facebook’s seven-day implied movement based on the weekly options market is 7 percent.

Facebook traded around $150.24 per share, up 4.2 percent at time of publication. The stock is up 11 percent year-to-date.