- As one would expect, Facebook's (NASDAQ:FB) big Q4 beat has been followed by a flurry of target hikes and plenty of analyst praise. Shares are less than $1.50 removed from a November peak of $110.65.
- "This was a breakout quarter because of Instagram," proclaims RBC's Mark Mahaney. He also notes ad revenue rose 66% excluding forex (it was up 57% in dollars), observes Q4 was the first quarter of Y/Y margin growth since Q2 2014, and says he's unconcerned about 2016 guidance for 45%-55% non-GAAP spending growth (30%-40% GAAP) in light of Facebook's growth trajectory. Mahaney's target has been upped by $30 to $160, with shares declared to be worth $200 in a best-case scenario.
- SunTrust's Bob Peck ($125 target): "We believe ad dollars will follow time spent and that with >1B daily visitors, improving targeting and analytics, new ad units, and >20% of time spent on mobile, Facebook has a long runway. Increasingly investors we speak with are focusing more on the inflection points for FB: Instagram roll-out cadence (now above 400M MAUs); continued video adoption and standalone prospects, new targeting and analytics; ecommerce, and new ad units (DPA and Lead Ads)."
- Rosenblatt's Martin Pyykkonen ($125 target): "We think Facebook has increasing traction with large brand advertisers (more tangible measurement metrics), Instagram and auto-play video ads on the core platform, and early but growing social media advertising market development in earlier stage foreign countries. We estimate Instagram’s global advertising revenue will be >10% of Facebook’s total advertising revenue on a run rate basis by the end of this year and will represent around $1B in advertising revenue for full year 2016 (~5% of Facebook’s total revenue).”
- FBN's Shebly Seyrafi ($135 target): "Instagram taking off like a rocket ship ... [Brand Networks] is forecasting that impressions on Instagram will be over 1B per month by the end of CQ1. This might imply ~2.5B impressions in CQ1, which would be almost double the 1.37B impressions in CQ4 noted above. Instagram [CPM ad prices appear to be] fluctuating around $5-7.”
- In other news, Facebook has announced all U.S. iPhone users are now able to use the company's video livestreaming platform, which competes against Twitter's Periscope. International and Android support will arrive later.
- Prior Facebook coverage