Facebook Q2 Earnings Takeaways: Big Revenue Beat, Cautious Outlook

Social media company Facebook Inc FB reported second-quarter earnings after market close Wednesday.

What Happened: Revenue of $29.07 billion beat street estimates of $27.82 billion. Total revenue was up 56% year-over-year in the second quarter.

The company’s earnings per share of $3.61 beat the $3.02 estimate.

The company saw its daily active users grow 7% year-over-year to 1.91 billion in the quarter. Monthly active users increased 7% to 2.9 billion.

“We had a strong quarter as we continue to help businesses grow and people stay connected,” said Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

Facebook's advertising revenue was $28.5 billion in the second quarter. The company saw its average price per ad increase 47% year-over-year and 6% more ads delivered in the quarter.

Related Link: Facebook Joins The 1 Trillion Club 

What’s Next: Facebook sees its advertising revenue growth to continue with price increases throughout the rest of the fiscal year.

Facebook said its third- and fourth-quarter revenue growth rates could decelerate “significantly” due to going against tough comp periods from the prior year.

“When viewing growth on a two-year basis to exclude the impacts from lapping the Covid-19 recovery, we expect year-over-year two-year total revenue growth to decelerate modestly in the second half of 2021 compared to the second quarter growth rate,” the company said.

The company mentioned potential headwinds from the iOS update from Apple Inc AAPL, which could have a larger impact in the third quarter compared to the second quarter.

FB Price Action: Shares are down 3.5% to $360.15 in after-hours trading Wednesday.