Another solid up-day in regular-session markets have given way to deep sell-offs in specific names that have disappointed investors on quarterly earnings report in the after-hours period. First the good news: the Dow was +0.63% on the day, now within 4% of its all-time trading highs reached the first week of January; the S&P 500, now 5% from its highs, gained +0.94% on the day; the Nasdaq was up +0.50% (still -11% off its November all-time highs); and the small-cap Russell 2000 took it on the chin today, -1.03%.
Now for the bad news, starting with
Meta Platforms
FB
, in its first reporting quarter since changing the company name from Facebook: a miss on the Q4 bottom line — $3.67 per share versus $3.78 expected — joined a beat on the top: $33.67 billion, above the $33.04 billion. But a bigger reason the stock is down a whopping -23% in after-hours trading is the weak revenue guidance for Q1 to $27-29 billion from $30.78 billion expected.
Further, the companies Daily Active Users (DAU) both missed expectations and declined overall, to 1.93 billion, slipping by 1 million in North America and 3 million in the Rest of World, with Europe and Asia-Pacific unable to grow back the difference. Its revenue forecast amounts to 3-11% growth; by way of comparison, Meta’s Q3 revenue growth was a much-more robust +35%. Meta’s Q4 report is causing negative reverberations among social media stocks elsewhere this afternoon, as well.
Spotify
SPOT
is another company struggling currently; while the company came out ahead on earnings results in its Q4 report, lower subscriber growth guidance is down from expectations — without even mentioning the Joe Rogan controversy this week, which has seen an exodus of major recording artists pulling their music from the streaming platform. SPOT shares are -16% in late trading, though not yet low enough to be given a serious look to value-oriented portfolios.
Qualcomm
QCOM
, on the other hand, hit its second-straight record high earnings and sales in its fiscal Q1 report Wednesday afternoon: $3.23 per share on $10.70 billion in revenues outpaced the $3.01 per share and $10.45 billion in the Zacks consensus. Strong demand for its high-end offerings, including Snapdragon chips, helped the company’s overall business. Earnings guidance for fiscal Q2 is now up to $2.90 per share from $2.45 previously expected.
And
T-Mobile
TMUS
has boasted its best growth year ever, capping with a Q4 report today that put up earnings of 34 cents per share which more than doubled the 16 cents expected. Revenues of $20.79 billion was a bit lower than the $21.13 billion analysts were looking for, but the company having added 1.2 million post-paid accounts in the quarter shows it continues to take share from competitors. Shares are up +8.8% on the earnings release, taking a bite out of the -24% T-Mobile has experienced in the past six months.
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