Facebook has somewhat weaker revenues than analysts envisioned. Uncertainty about Apple product is to blame.
On Monday, Facebook released the figures for the third quarter. And they show total revenue for the quarter of $ 29.0 billion and a bottom line of $ 9.19 billion. That equates to $ 3.22 per share. The operating margin in the third quarter was 36 percent.
Facebook paid only 4 percent tax in the previous quarter, but that is largely due to a one-time effect of $ 913 million. In the fourth quarter, the tax burden is expected to be up to 20 per cent.
In the third quarter, there were about 1.93 billion daily, active users of Facebook, an increase of 6 percent from the third quarter of 2020. The number of monthly users in the period also increased by 6 percent, to 2.91 billion.
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Up 19 percent
If we look at analysts’ expectations, total quarterly earnings were $ 29.6 billion and earnings per share were $ 3.19. Facebook announced on Monday that in the fourth quarter they expect revenues between 31.5-34 billion dollars.
The uncertainty is due to headwinds for Apple’s iOS 14 commitment and the ongoing corona pandemic. Revenues outside the advertising market are expected to fall from the fourth quarter of 2020 to the fourth quarter of this year.
As the graph below shows, the Facebook share has risen by around 19 per cent this year, but has fallen by as much as 15 per cent since the beginning of September.
The market value of Facebook on Monday night Norwegian time was 916 billion dollars, 7725 billion Norwegian kroner. That is just over ten times more than the value of Equinor, which is by far Norway’s most valuable company.
Facebook says nothing about the announced name change for the company, it is expected to happen on Thursday. The name change will reflect Facebook’s commitment to so-called metaverse.
The term is usually used to describe the concept of a future repetition / repetition of the Internet. It consists of persistent, shared, virtual 3D spaces that are linked to a perceived virtual universe.
Sold down
Mark Zuckerberg established Facebook in February 2004. The entrepreneur currently owns about 14 percent of Facebook and has gradually sold himself down from 28 percent since the IPO in 2012.
Zuckerberg’s Facebook fortune now corresponds to 1080 billion kroner. It’s about ten times the fortune of John Fredriksen, Norway’s by far richest person.
The largest other owners in Facebook today own large international funds. The Petroleum Fund owns 1 percent of Facebook, ie values of 77 billion Norwegian kroner.
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