Zeebiz Bureau
New York: Facebook Inc, in its first earnings report as a public company, Thursday reported a net loss of USD 157 million or 8 cents a share in the scond quarter (April-June period) after taking hefty stock compensation charges related to its rocky initial public offering two months ago.
During the same quarter a year ago the comapny had reported earnings of USD 240 million, or 11 cents per share.
Shares of Facebook, which have shed a third of their value since their haphazard May debut at USD 38, broke below USD 24 in frenzied after-hours trading. The social networking pioneer was the first American company to debut with a market value of more than USD 100 billion.
Revenue grew 32 percent to USD 1.18 billion from USD 895 million a year ago.
Adjusted earnings of USD 295 million, or 12 cents per share, matched Wall Street’s expectations.
The results come two months after Facebook’s stock landed with a thud on its first trading day, on May 18. The day began with glitches with the Nasdaq stock market that delayed trading by half an hour. It didn’t get much better from there. Despite months of hoopla that had investors thinking it would soar, the stock closed just 23 cents above its USD 38 IPO price. It has not reached that level since then.
Though as its first public report, Facebook had a lot riding on this quarter, Wall Street’s expectations were muted, which could be a reason for the stock price decline.
Facebook had effectively warned investors before its IPO that Wall Street’s expectations were too high. In a filing issued a week before its IPO, Facebook said its mobile users are growing at a faster pace than the number of ads on its mobile platform.
Analysts took that as a sign that their estimates were out of whack and many of them reduced their estimates for Facebook’s projected revenue and earnings.
That said, Facebook didn’t start showing ads on its mobile app until this spring. While it’s true that it was late to the game — after all, its mobile user base is growing fast — it doesn’t mean it won’t be able to in the future.
Overall, Facebook said its revenue from advertising totaled USD 992 million, representing 84 percent of total revenue and a 28 percent increase from the same quarter last year. It did not say what percentage was from mobile.
Facebook said it had 955 million active monthly users as of June 30, up 29 percent from a year earlier.
With Agency Inputs
