On today’s episode of Free Lunch, Ryan McQueeney recaps the latest earnings results from Facebook, General Motors, and Kellogg. Later, he discusses consumer Halloween spending habits and tracks the recent performance of popular candy stocks.
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Stocks gained at the open Wednesday, thanks in large part to strong earnings results from key bellwethers. Notably, Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) got some reprieve after its report on Tuesday afternoon, and General Motors (NYSE:GM) posted a much-needed strong quarter before the bell today.
Facebook managed to tally adjusted earnings of $1.76 per share and revenue of $13.7 billion. These results marked year-over-year growth of 10% and 33%, respectively. That revenue figure did miss estimates, but Wall Street was impressed by Facebook’s ability to grow earnings in the face of rising operating costs.
Mark Zuckerberg also spent time outlining the future of Facebook, highlighting the potential of the Stories feature in terms of new audience engagement and advertising. Zuckerberg mentioned that users like this non-permanent sharing and he wants to “make sure that we [at Facebook] fully embrace this.”
Elsewhere, GM posted earnings of $1.87 per share, crushing the Zacks Consensus Estimate by over 40%. Revenue improved 6% year over year to $35.8 billion, despite total auto sales slumping in key markets like the U.S. and China.
GM managed to offset this decline by selling more SUVs and trucks, which sell at higher price tags and are more profitable for the company. Management also said that it expects full-year earnings to come in at the high end of its guidance and potentially even higher, breathing some life into the struggling stock this morning.
On other hand, cereal giant Kellogg (NYSE:K) missed earnings estimates and saw its shares decline in morning trading today. Quarterly profits at the company came in at $1.06 per share, lagging the Zacks Consensus by a penny. Wall Street punished this earnings missed, even though revenue was ahead of expectations.
Ryan covers all of these headlines on the first half of today’s show!
Later, he has a little Halloween fun, highlighting consumer spending trends during the holiday and investigating a few candy stocks. How much money does the average person spend on Halloween, and where do they spend it? How do analysts feel about Hershey (NYSE:HSY) right now? Did everyone know Tootsie Roll (NYSE:TR) was a publicly-traded company?
Ryan explores all of these questions, and more, only on today’s episode of Free Lunch!
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Facebook, Inc. (FB): Free Stock Analysis Report
General Motors Company (GM): Free Stock Analysis Report
Hershey Company (The) (HSY): Free Stock Analysis Report
Kellogg Company (K): Free Stock Analysis Report
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