Facebook Q3 Earnings Takeaways: Revenue Miss, Weak Guidance, New Names For 2 Units

Social media giant Facebook Inc FB reported third-quarter financial results after market close Monday.

Here are the key takeaways from the report.

What Happened: Facebook reported third-quarter revenue of $29 billion, up 35% year-over-year. The revenue total was shy of analysts’ estimates of $29.6 billion.

Advertising revenue for the company was $28.3 billion, up 33% year-over-year. The company’s other business segment had revenue of $734 million, up 195% year-over-year.

Facebook’s earnings per share of $3.22 beat the Street consensus of $3.19.

The company reported daily active users of 1.93 billion and monthly active users of 2.91 billion, btoh up 6% year-over-year.

Related Link: 5 Technology Stocks To Watch Ahead Of Earnings This Week 

What’s Next: Facebook is guiding for fourth-quarter revenue to be in a range of $31.5 billion to $34 billion, shy of Street estimates of $34.9 billion.

The third-quarter miss and fourth-quarter guidance follow comments made in the company’s second-quarter report on the second half seeing decelerated growth due to 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 at the time.

Going forward, Facebook will break out its Facebook Reality Labs as a separate reporting segment, beginning with the fourth quarter.

“We are dedicating significant resources toward our augmented and virtual reality products and services, which are an important part of our work to develop the next generation of social experiences,” the company said.

Facebook Reality Labs will include augmented and virtual reality hardware, software and content. The investment in this new unit could reduce operating profit in 2021 by $10 billion, the company said.

The other reporting unit will be Family of Apps, which includes Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp and other services.

FB Price Action: Facebook shares are up 3.7% to $341 in after-hours trading.