Facebook shares fall as user growth slows

Only months after a data privacy scandal, Facebook is seeing fewer frequent users than it expected.

In announcing its latest earnings on Wedneday, the social media company reported 2.23 billion monthly active users, shy of Wall Street forecasts of 2.25 billion. Its total user count represents an 11 percent increase over the year-ago period. 

It’s the first time Facebook missed an earnings report since 2015. It’s been a volatile day for the company’s stock, which reached a record high Wednesday morning before the earnings report came out.   

Facebook shares fell more than 8 percent, to $199.95, in after-hours trading.

The Menlo Park, California-based company said it had profit of $1.74 per share, short of Wall Street expectations of $1.75 per share. The social media company posted revenue of $13.23 billion in the period. Fourteen analysts surveyed by Zacks Zacks Investment Research expected $13.43 billion.

Facebook shares have increased 23 percent since the beginning of the year, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 index has increased 6.5 percent. In the final minutes of trading on Wednesday, shares hit $217.50, an increase of 32 percent in the last 12 months.

“Our community and business continue to grow quickly,” Facbook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a statement. “We are committed to investing to keep people safe and secure, and to keep building meaningful new ways to help people connect.”  

Analysts are watching to see how Facebook recovers from the Cambridge Analytica scandal, a data firm that improperly accessed information from as many as 87 million Facebook users.