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Facebook (FB) Q3 2019 earnings


Facebook Chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifies at a House Financial Services Committee hearing in Washington, October 23, 2019.

Erin Scott | Reuters

Facebook is set to report third quarter earnings after the bell on Wednesday.

Here’s what analysts expect for the period that ended in September:

  • Earnings: $1.91 per share, according to Refinitiv.
  • Revenue: $17.37 billion, according to Refinitiv.
  • Daily active users: 1.61 billion, according to FactSet.
  • Monthly active users: 2.45 billion, according to FactSet.
  • Average revenue per user: $7.09, according to FactSet.

The company is expected to report revenue growth of 27% from a year earlier, which would mark the third straight quarter of sub-30% expansion. Competition in the online ad market has increased, in particular with Amazon becoming a bigger player, but Facebook is finding more avenues for ad growth at Instagram and through new formats like Stories. 

“Facebook continues to grow users and advertising revenue on the core Facebook platform but is seeing growth increasingly fueled by faster-growing, younger-skewing Instagram,” wrote analysts from Stifel, in a report this week. The firm has a hold rating on the stock. 

Facebook’s greater concern of late has been at the regulatory level, where the company faces intense pressure for its mishandling of user data and, more recently, its decision to run political ads without fact-checking them. Last week, CEO Mark Zuckerberg was heavily criticized for his position on political ads when he testified before Congress in a hearing about the libra cryptocurrency, which the company is spearheading.

Still, the regulatory and political scrutiny hasn’t kept Facebook from pushing into new products. Earlier this month, it launched the second generation of its Portal smart home video-calling devices, and last week, the company launched Facebook News, a new section of the social network that shows users a personalized selection of news stories. In September, Facebook announced its acquisition of brain-computing startup CTRL-labs after striking a partnership with Ray-Ban maker Luxottica to develop smart-glasses.

Facebook is undergoing a major transition in its business as more ads move from the core News Feed to the newer Stories products, consisting of full-screen photos or videos that users can share and that then disappear. Already, the company says it has more than 500 million daily users for the Stories features across Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger.

Facebook shares are up 43% in 2019, outperforming the S&P 500, which has gained 21%.

WATCH: Here’s how to see which apps have access to your Facebook data — and cut them off

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