Facebook Rises on User Growth for Family of Apps, Buyback
- Quarterly revenue, forecast fall short, but focus is on growth
- Social giant to break out results from AR/VR development unit
Facebook Inc. shares gained in late trading after third-quarter results showed more people are actively using its network of social media apps than analysts predicted, and the company pledged to buy back as much as $50 billion more in stock.
User growth for the family of apps including Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, and the prospect of continued repurchases, outweighed some of the less rosy results in its earnings report, showing last quarter’s sales and the forecast for revenue this period missed analysts’ estimates. Weighing on the company’s outlook are persistent headwinds from Apple Inc.’s restrictions on consumer data collection and uncertainty related to the post-pandemic economic recovery.
Third-quarter revenue climbed 35% to $29 billion. That compared with the $29.5 billion average analysts’ estimate, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Daily active users for the company’s network rose to 2.81 billion, Facebook said Monday in a statement, compared with analyst predictions of 2.77 billion. The company’s shares rose about 2% in extended trading.