Facebook reported better than expected fourth quarter financial results Wednesday, but worries about Apple’s iOS changes and regulatory challenges overshadowed the strong results.
In prepared remarks, Facebook CFO David Wehner said the company expects to face “more significant ad targeting headwinds in 2021,” including the impact of iOS 14 and regulatory developments in Europe.
“While the timing of the iOS 14 changes remains uncertain, we would expect to see an impact beginning late in the first quarter,” Wehner said.
Nonetheless, Facebook’s fourth quarter revenue climbed 33% year-over-year driven largely by ad revenue.
For the fourth quarter, Facebook’s diluted earnings per share were $3.88 on revenue of $28.072 billion. Analysts expected earnings of $3.22 on revenue of $26.43 billion.
Facebook’s total advertising revenue in Q4 rose 31% to $27.187 billion.
For the full year, Facebook’s EPS came to $10.09 on revenue of $85.965 billion, well above expectations. Facebook shares were down around 2% after hours.
Elsewhere on the balance sheet, Facebook said daily active users were 1.84 billion on average for December 2020, an increase of 11% year-over-year. Its monthly active users totaled 2.8 billion as of December 31, 2019, an increase of 12% year-over-year.
The number of people active daily on at least one of Facebook’s products — including Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp — was 2.6 billion on average for December 2020, an increase of 15% year-over-year. Monthly active people for Facebook products was 3.3 billion as of December 31, 2020, an increase of 14% year-over-year.
Facebook also announced that its Board of Directors has authorized $25 billion in incremental share repurchases.
