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Facebook co-founder, Chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifies before a combined Senate Judiciary and Commerce committee hearing in the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill April 10, 2018 in Washington, DC.
- Facebook on Wednesday announced fourth-quarter results that beat on both the top and bottom lines.
- The tech giant also posted strong user metrics.
- Encouraged by Facebook's strong earnings, many Wall Street analysts raised their price targets.
- Analysts noted Facebook will attract advertisers sp long as users are not leaving the platform.
Facebook on Wednesday posted fourth-quarter earnings that crushed Wall Street estimates, sending shares up as much as 12% early Thursday.
The tech giant earned $2.38 a share, or $0.20 more than what Wall Street analysts were expecting. It netted $16.91 billion in revenue, topping the $16.39 billion that was expected.
Facebook also proved it was able to keep users, totaling 1.523 billion daily active users in December 2018, while analysts were expecting 1.51 billion. It had 2.32 billion monthly active users as of December 31, 2018, in line with the Wall Street consensus.
The social-media platform added that its family of services - including Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, and Messenger - now have around more than 2 billion daily active users and over 2.7 billion monthly active users.
Facebook's strong user metrics impressed analysts across Wall Street, prompting them to raise their price targets. They said as long as users aren't leaving the platform, Facebook will remain attractive to advertisers.
Here's what analysts are saying about the results: