Facebook Shares Rise After-Hours on Robust Q2 Results

The social network handily beat earnings and revenue estimates for the quarter, but confirmed that both the FTC and the Department of Justice were investigating the company.
By Nelson Wang ,

Facebook shares were rising after-hours on Wednesday after the social network posted healthy second-quarter results that beat analyst estimates for both earnings and revenues.

TheStreet is live blogging Facebook's Q2 earnings report and call. Please join us!

On the day that it announced it had agreed to a record $5 billion fine to settle charges brought by the Federal Trade Commission, Facebook reported adjusted EPS of $1.99 on revenue of $16.89 billion, compared to analyst estimates of EPS of $1.88 and revenue of $16.49 billion. Officially, EPS was $0.91, with $1.08 worth of charges recorded due to the FTC settlement and developments in a legal proceeding.

Shares of Facebook were rising 1.3% to $207.31 in after-hours trading after finishing the regular trading session up 1.1%. Shares are up more than 50% this year.

Facebook confirmed in its release that it had been notified by both the FTC and the Department of Justice that they had opened antitrust investigations of Facebook and other large tech companies.

For the quarter, daily average users for core Facebook and Messenger rose 8% year-over-year to 1.59 billion, while monthly average users rose 8% to 2.41 billion. Both growth rates were in-line with consensus estimates. Facebook estimated more than 2.1 billion people use one of its main services (Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp) each day, and that more than 2.7 billion do so each month.

"We had a strong quarter and our business and community continue to grow," said Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder and CEO. "We are investing in building stronger privacy protections for everyone and on delivering new experiences for the people who use our services."

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