As the Q4 earnings season comes to a close, it’s time to take stock of this quarter’s best and worst performers in the social networking industry, including Yelp (NYSE: YELP) and its peers.
Businesses must meet their customers where they are, which over the past decade has come to mean on social networks. In 2020, users spent over 2.5 hours a day on social networks, a figure that has increased every year since measurement began. As a result, businesses continue to shift their advertising and marketing dollars online.
The 5 social networking stocks we track reported a satisfactory Q4. As a group, revenues beat analysts’ consensus estimates by 2.5% while next quarter’s revenue guidance was 1.2% below.
In light of this news, share prices of the companies have held steady. On average, they are relatively unchanged since the latest earnings results.
Yelp (NYSE: YELP)
Founded by PayPal alumni Jeremy Stoppelman and Russel Simmons, Yelp (NYSE: YELP) is an online platform that helps people discover local businesses through crowd-sourced reviews.
Yelp reported revenues of $362 million, up 5.7% year on year. This print exceeded analysts’ expectations by 3.3%. Despite the top-line beat, it was still a mixed quarter for the company with an impressive beat of analysts’ EBITDA estimates.
“Yelp's 2024 results reflect the strong execution on our services roadmap,” said Jeremy Stoppelman, Yelp’s co-founder and chief executive officer.
Yelp delivered the slowest revenue growth of the whole group. The stock is down 5.3% since reporting and currently trades at $38.39.
Is now the time to buy Yelp? Access our full analysis of the earnings results here, it’s free.
Best Q4: Snap (NYSE: SNAP)
Founded by Stanford University students Evan Spiegel, Reggie Brown, and Bobby Murphy, and originally called Picaboo, Snapchat (NYSE: SNAP) is an image centric social media network.
Snap reported revenues of $1.56 billion, up 14.4% year on year, outperforming analysts’ expectations by 0.6%. The business had a strong quarter with a solid beat of analysts’ EBITDA estimates.
Although it had a fine quarter compared to its peers, the market seems unhappy with the results as the stock is down 5.4% since reporting. It currently trades at $11.
Is now the time to buy Snap? Access our full analysis of the earnings results here, it’s free.
Weakest Q4: Meta (NASDAQ: META)
Famously founded by Mark Zuckerberg in his Harvard dorm, Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META) operates a collection of the largest social networks in the world - Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger, along with its metaverse focused Reality Labs.
Meta reported revenues of $48.39 billion, up 20.6% year on year, exceeding analysts’ expectations by 2.9%. Still, it was a mixed quarter as it posted revenue guidance for the next quarter, missing analysts’ expectations significantly.
Interestingly, the stock is up 5.9% since the results and currently trades at $716.30.
Read our full analysis of Meta’s results here.
Pinterest (NYSE: PINS)
Created with the idea of virtually replacing paper catalogues, Pinterest (NYSE: PINS) is an online image and social discovery platform.
Pinterest reported revenues of $1.15 billion, up 17.6% year on year. This number topped analysts’ expectations by 1.2%. Overall, it was a strong quarter as it also put up EBITDA guidance for next quarter exceeding analysts’ expectations.
The company reported 553 million monthly active users, up 11% year on year. The stock is up 17.6% since reporting and currently trades at $39.50.
Read our full, actionable report on Pinterest here, it’s free.
Reddit (NYSE: RDDT)
Founded in 2005 by two University of Virginia roommates, Reddit (NYSE: RDDT) facilitates user-generated content across niche communities (called subreddits) that discuss anything from stocks to dating and memes.
Reddit reported revenues of $427.7 million, up 71.3% year on year. This result beat analysts’ expectations by 4.6%. More broadly, it was a satisfactory quarter as it also recorded EBITDA guidance for next quarter exceeding analysts’ expectations but a significant miss of analysts’ number of domestic daily active visitors estimates.
Reddit achieved the biggest analyst estimates beat and fastest revenue growth among its peers. The company reported 48 million daily active users, up 31.9% year on year. The stock is down 13.8% since reporting and currently trades at $186.60.
Read our full, actionable report on Reddit here, it’s free.
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