Shares of social media giant Facebook (NasdaqGM: FB) were up nearly 20% in premarket trading Thursday in the wake of the firm’s blowout quarterly earnings.
If the rally holds up, it will represent the best one-day performance in the stock’s history. California-based Facebook reported an adjusted second-quarter profit of $488 million, or 19 cents per share, on revenue of $1.81 billion. Analysts were expecting EPS of 14 cents on revenue of $1.62 billion.
“We’ve made good progress growing our community, deepening engagement and delivering strong financial results, especially on mobile,”said Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder and CEO, in a statement.”The work we’ve done to make mobile the best Facebook experience is showing good results and provides us with a solid foundation for the future.
Facebook’s thumping of Wall Street estimates could benefit several ETFs, most of which are direct plays on Internet and social media stocks.
However, investors should not overlook the Market Vectors Wide Moat ETF (NYSEArca: MOAT) as an avenue for getting some Facebook exposure. MOAT tracks the Morningstar Wide Moat Focus Index, which is designed to focus on companies with distinct competitive advantages. [Wide Moat ETF Covers Firms With Competitive Advantages]
MOAT added Facebook shares in the recent quarterly reconstitution of the Morningstar tracking index.
At rebalancing, the index equal weights 20 holdings at 5% apiece, but Facebook is currently MOAT’s second-largest constituent with an allocation of 5.33%. Schlumberger (NYSE: SLB), the world’s largest oilfield services company, is the ETF’s largest holding at 5.58%. Other familiar names in the ETF include Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-B), National Oilwell Varco (NYSE: NOV) and General Electric (NYSE: GE). [An ETF Patterned on Buffett’s Wide Moat Approach]