Facebook (FB) – Get Report announced Monday that it is its second-quarter earnings report through Thursday beginning Wednesday due to a scheduling crash for CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
“Facebook founder and CEO are expected to testify before the House Judiciary Committee on July 29,” the company said in a statement. Zuckerberg will talk about “online platforms and market power,” according to the committee’s website.
Zuckerberg originally planned to testify on Monday, but the hearing was postponed out of respect for the occasions when Rep. John Lewis, who died last week, was honored.
In its first quarter earnings announcement, Facebook reported a sharp drop in ad gains over the past 3 weeks of March, saying profits remained strong compared to the previous year in the first 3 weeks of April. Advertising accounts for 99% of Facebook’s profits.
The coronavirus first stifled advertising, but companies have become more impatient as consumers trapped at home spend more time on social media.
Morningstar analyst Ali Mogharabi is excited about Facebook’s perspectives.
“We raised our [fair value] estimates for Alphabet (GOOGL) – Get a report, Facebook, Pinterest (PINS) – Get a report, a Snap (SNAP) – Get a report and Twitter (TWTR) – Get a report, like the coronavirus, the good luck of virtual advertising seems sweeter than expected,” he wrote in a previous report this month.
“We believe that advertisers will continue to allocate more than their advertising dollars to post-pandemic direct reaction campaigns. The main beneficiary of what could become a lasting replacement is probably Facebook.”
Mogharabi valued Facebook at $245. It was recently traded at $234.05, an increase of 1.45%, and has 14% higher since the start of the year.
Dan is a freelancer whose paintings have been published in the Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, The Washington Post and other publications.