Axiom's Anthony Sees Pullbacks In Facebook Shares As Buying Opportunities

On Monday afternoon, notable Internet Media analyst, Victor Anthony of Axiom Capital, issued an interesting preview of Facebook Inc FB's first-quarter earnings, expected out on April 27 after the market close.

The analyst is expecting "solid results" out of Facebook, albeit amid recently lowered market expectations. Anthony is modeling for the company to report adjusted earnings of $0.63 per share on sales of about $5.3 billion. He sees 54 percent year-over-year growth in advertising and mobile ad sales up about 69 percent over the last year.

Monthly active users are expected to be up 25 million, mobile MAUs up 31 million and daily active users up about 17 million, according to the Axiom analyst.

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Anthony highlighted four investor concerns heading into the quarter:

• Concerns about a slowdown in ad spend on core Facebook;
• Instagram cannibalization;
• The prospects of rising expenses due to ambitions laid out at F8; and,
• A pullback in venture investment in tech startups.

Amid these concerns, though, Anthony suggested, "Our checks for this quarter have not been as robust as in the past, partly due to seasonality being more pronounced as the platform ages, but they have not necessarily been negative either."

Looking past the earnings report, Anthony believes future pullbacks in shares of Facebook "should be viewed as a buying opportunity."

Anthony maintains a Buy rating and $150 price target on shares of Facebook.