The Only Two Questions Facebook Has To Answer With Its Q4 Earnings

There are really only two big questions investors want Facebook to answer.

• Facebook managed to re-accelerate advertising revenue growth during Q3. Did revenue acceleration continue in Q4? If growth is greater than 32% y/y, the answer is yes.
• Facebook's operating profit margin is expected to have bottomed in Q3. Did operating profit margin expand in Q4? If operating margins are greater than 12.13%, the answer is yes.

If Facebook is able to answer both of these questions "yes," then that means earnings will grow rapidly for the next few quarters. The market usually loves that.

One more granular detail that investors will be paying attention to is Facebook's ability to make money off of mobile users versus desktop users.

In the past, Facebook was able to generate more revenue per desktop user than it was per mobile user.

That was a problem, because desktop usage is flat-to-declining while mobile usage is rapidly rising.

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