*By Chloe Aiello*
Facebook soared in extended trading on Wednesday after reporting better-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings, and revenue that beat Wall Street forecasts for the first time in two quarters.
Facebook ($FB) reported earnings per share of $2.38 on revenue of $16.91 billion. That topped analysts' expectations for $2.19 earnings per share on $16.4 billion in revenue, according to Thomson Reuters. Facebook also beat on ad revenue, reporting $16.64 billion, which exceeded the Street's forecast of $16.25 billion.
Facebook added that 93 percent of advertising revenue came from mobile advertising, up from about 89 percent last year.
Facebook said revenue was up 30 percent year-over-year. The social media giant also reported an increase in daily active users to an estimated 1.52 billion in December ー about a 9 percent increase from the prior year. Active users are an important metric of success and audience engagement for social media companies.
Looking ahead to the first quarter of 2019, however, Facebook said it expects total revenue growth to decelerate "by a mid-single-digit percentage," and continue along that trajectory throughout the rest of the year.
Facebook’s report closes out a tough year for the social media company. Its stock has dropped more than 12 percent in the past 12 months amid a series of damaging data privacy and political scandals, from Russian trolls using the platform for coordinated misinformation campaigns to the improper harvesting of data.
Most recently, [TechCrunch reported](https://techcrunch.com/2019/01/29/facebook-project-atlas/) that Facebook has been paying users aged 13 to 35 to install a VPN that allows the company to essentially spy on their mobile activity. The VPN is similar to an app Apple ($AAPL) banned from its store in June.
All of this scandal has sparked heightened scrutiny and a sliding stock price. But despite the negative press, many analysts still viewed Facebook as a “buy” heading into earnings thanks to the popularity of Instagram, the monetization opportunities in Stories and Messenger, and Facebook’s reduced stock price.
“We think 2019 is likely to end better for FB than it started,” [Bank of America analysts wrote in a note](https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/30/heres-what-major-analysts-think-of-facebook-before-its-earnings-after-the-bell-wednesday.html). “Our core view is that stories and video usage could stabilize/improve FB engagement, while greater monetization of stories, messaging and video, plus easier comps could stabilize revenue growth in the back half of 2019.”
Michael Robinson, an analyst at Money Map Press, said he doesn't think Facebook is in the clear just yet, as the company and CEO Mark Zuckerberg continue to deal with scrutiny and threat of regulation.
"It's not just about earnings and sales, of course, those are great ... I don't have a sense that the company, particularly with Zuckerberg there, \[has\] a path to deal with all these privacy problems," Robinson said. "And what is the plan for dealing with Congress? I think that if you are going to buy this stock for the long haul, you'd have to be patient because I don't know that we are necessarily out of the woods in terms of the stock's performance."
President Donald Trump has fired one of two Democratic members of the U.S. Surface Transportation Board to break a 2-2 tie ahead of the board considering the largest railroad merger ever proposed.
Ford is recalling more than 355,000 of its pickup trucks across the U.S. because of an instrument panel display failure that’s resulted in critical information, like warning lights and vehicle speed, not showing up on the dashboard.
Nvidia reported a 56% increase in second-quarter revenue and a 59% rise in net income compared to a year ago.
The Rev. Al Sharpton is set to lead a protest march on Wall Street to urge corporate America to resist the Trump administration’s campaign to roll back diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. The New York civil rights leader will join clergy, labor and community leaders Thursday in a demonstration through Manhattan’s Financial District that’s timed with the anniversary of the Civil Rights-era March on Washington in 1963. Sharpton called DEI the “civil rights fight of our generation." He and other Black leaders have called for boycotting American retailers that scaled backed policies and programs aimed at bolstering diversity and reducing discrimination in their ranks.
President Donald Trump's administration last month awarded a $1.2 billion contract to build and operate what's expected to become the nation’s largest immigration detention complex to a tiny Virginia firm with no experience running correction facilities.
Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos claims audiences don't want to watch Netflix movies in theaters, but that seems not to be the case recently.
Chipmaker Nvidia is poised to release a quarterly report that could provide a better sense of whether the stock market has been riding an overhyped artificial intelligence bubble or is being propelled by a technological boom that’s still gathering momentum.
Cracker Barrel said late Tuesday it’s returning to its old logo after critics — including President Donald Trump — protested the company’s plan to modernize.
Low-value imports are losing their duty-free status in the U.S. this week as part of President Donald Trump's agenda for making the nation less dependent on foreign goods. A widely used customs exemption for international shipments worth $800 or less is set to end starting on Friday. Trump already ended the “de minimis” rule for inexpensive items sent from China and Hong Kong, but having to pay import taxes on small parcels from everywhere else likely will be a big change for some small businesses and online shoppers. Purchases that previously entered the U.S. without needing to clear customs will be subject to the origin country’s tariff rate, which can range from 10% to 50%.
Southwest Airlines will soon require plus-size travelers to pay for an extra seat in advance if they can't fit within the armrests of one seat. This change is part of several updates the airline is making. The new rule starts on Jan. 27, the same day Southwest begins assigning seats. Currently, plus-size passengers can pay for an extra seat in advance and later get a refund, or request a free extra seat at the airport. Under the new policy, refunds are still possible but not guaranteed. Southwest said in a statement it is updating policies to prepare for assigned seating next year.
