Facebook beats earnings estimates but stock falls on growth slowdown warning SHARE Facebook Inc. today easily beat estimates for its second-quarter results, but a warning that growth would slow in coming quarters knocked its stock down in after-hours trading. The company said it earned a net profit of $10.4 billion, or $3.61 a share, slightly more than double its profit a year ago, as revenue jumped 56%, to $29.1 billion — the fastest rate since 2016 and significantly higher than the first quarter’s 48%. Analysts on average had forecast a profit of $3.04 a share, up 68%, on revenue of $27.8 billion, up 49%. But the news investors focused on was what’s coming, and they didn’t like what they heard. Facebook said in prepared comments that it expects year-over-year revenue growth to “decelerate significantly on a sequential basis” since it will lap 2020’s increasingly strong growth as the pandemic’s economic impacts eased.