Deutsche Bank's Lloyd Walmsley said that "renewed strength" in Facebook's core app should bolster its continued growth in 2020. Walmsley  cited improvements to Facebook’s newsfeed algorithms, the build-outs on features for its Marketplace and Groups sections and other product work as key drivers of the app’s strength. According to Walmsley, strengthening  engagement in core Facebook could become "durable" in 2020. The analyst also pointed out that products such as Marketplace, and recently  launched  Facebook Pay, could further add to the monetization of core Facebook. Deutsche Bank raised its target price to $270 from $260 and maintains a buy rating on the stock. 

Both Page and Brin will remain on the company board, though. According to several analysts, Pichai's new role is unlikely to have a  major impact in the near term,  since investors already know the executive’s achievements at search engine Google well and largely expect  business to continue as usual. But at the same time,  the shuffle could be indicative of positive changes at Alphabet. Ever since Pichai stepped in as  Google CEO in August 2015, shares of Alphabet have gained around +100%  -well exceeding the S&P’s gain of +60% in the same period. Pichai worked at Applied Materials and McKinsey before joining Google in 2004.

Facebook's Instagram will begin testing hiding "likes" from U.S. viewers next week. At the Wired25 conference, Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri announced, "We're testing making like counts private".Mosseri also said, “We will make decisions that hurt the business if they help people’s well-being and health”.

Facebook shares were rising +3% in extended trading Wednesday, after the company reported earnings that beat expectations. For the third quarter, the social network behemoth posted earnings of $2.12 a share, which handily topped analysts' estimates of $1.91. Quarterly revenue surged +29% year-over-year to $17.65 billion, beating estimates of $17.37 billion.  Average revenue per user came in at $7.26, compared to $7.09 expected by analysts. As of the end of the third quarter, Facebook’s daily active users of 1.62 billion was an increase of +9% year-over-year.Monthly active users rose +8% year-over-year to 2.45 billion. According to the company, 2.2 billion people use Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, or Messenger every day on average, and around 2.8 billion people use at least one of those apps each month.   

Social media giant Twitter (NYSE: TWTR) has been trending higher since December with the stock gaining over 40% from its low to its high.Similar crossovers in the last ten months have been pretty good indicators for a move to the upside. In addition to the stochastic crossover, the stock broke below its lower Bollinger band on October 1.

Online dating site operator Match Group (Nasdaq: MTCH) has been on an incredible run over the last four years.Match Group is the parent company of websites such as Tinder.com, Match.com, and OKCupid.com. As late as April 2016, the stock was trading under $10 a share before rallying as high as $95 last month.

Chinese social media platform Weibo (Nasdaq: WB) has been doing relatively well as a company, but the stock hasn’t followed suit.The stock was in oversold territory based on the 10-week RSI and the weekly stochastic readings, but the RSI has recently moved out of oversold territory while the stochastic readings remain there. The Relative Strength Rating from Investor’s Business Daily is a 12 and that means the price performance is in the bottom 12% of stocks for the past year.

The parent company of Google also revealed its $25 billion additional stock buyback plan. Alphabet’s adjusted earnings for the quarter came in at $14.21 per share, wee above the $11.30 per share expected by analysts surveyed by Refinitiv. Total revenue of $38.94 billion also exceeded analysts’ estimate of $38.15 billion. Even traffic acquisition costs of $7.24 billion for the tech giant were lower than the $7.27 billion expected, according to StreetAccount.Traffic acquisition costs incurred as a percentage of Google advertising revenues was slightly lower this year compared to the previous year’s quarter. While cost-per-click on Google properties declined -11% year-over-year in Q2, paid clicks on Google properties surged + 28% over the same period. Alphabet also said that its board of directors have approved a repurchase of up to an additional $25 billion of its Class C capital stock.

Twitter posted higher-than-expected adjusted earnings for its second quarter, along with reporting strong growth in its number of daily active users. The social networking company’s adjusted earnings came in at 20 cents per share, compared to the 19 cents per share expected by analysts polled by Refinitiv. Total revenue for the company increased +18% year over year to $841 million, which exceeded analysts' estimate of $829.1 million (per Refinitiv survey). According to Twitter,  it achieved an average of 139 million monetizable daily active users (mDAUs) in the second quarter, which is +14% higher from the year-ago quarter.International average mDAUs were 110 million in the quarter, +15% higher from the year-ago period. Twitter said that its total advertising revenue increased +21% year-over-year (or +23% on a constant currency basis) to $727 million in the quarter.

Snap Inc. shares climbed Friday, following a rating upgrade by Goldman Sachs. Analysts at Goldman Sachs increased their rating on the technology and camera company to buy from neutral , citing product improvements and feature additions that they believe are bolstering user growth for Snap.The analysts also mentioned that ad tech initiatives from Snap are tailwinds to monetization for the company’s offerings. Analyst Heath P. Terry of Goldman Sachs emphasized that Snap’s new Android app, the launch of Snap Games and new viral lenses would accelerate user growth.

Online dating service provider Match Group (Nasdaq: MTCH) has seen its stock rise tremendously since November.That’s a gain of over 135% in less than six months. The technical performance for the stock is strong enough that it scores a 96 on Investor’s Business Daily’s Relative Price Strength Rating.

Following a rating upgrade by Citi, Cars.com shares jumped around +6% Tuesday. Citi analysts raised their rating on the digital automotive marketplace company to buy from neutral.Analyst Nicholas Jones mentioned in a note to clients that Cars.com’s valuation is low at current levels. However, Jones left his price target on the stock unchanged at $27. In its latest quarterly results published in May, Cars.com reported fiscal first-quarter earnings of 28 cents a share, which fell short of Wall Street's expectations of 30 cents a share.

Google on Thursday announced a new feature that will help you avoid crowded buses -- at least if you have a choice of when to commute. Google Maps for Android and iOS is receiving an update that gives you information on how crowded a bus typically is at the time of day when you’re planning to ride it.For instance, it might say that there’s “usually standing room only” if the bus is crowded.

As Facebook explores how to establish more independent oversight for the company, CEO Mark Zuckerberg is proposing a type of court system where appeals can be elevated if people disagree on how controversial content is treated.  Facebook released a new research report on Thursday summarizing its findings based on input from over 2,000 people in 88 countries.

Twitter said Thursday it will start labeling tweets from influential government officials who break its rules. Shares of Twitter dipped about 1% on the news but recovered slightly. The new rule, announced in a blog post, responds to a common criticism of Twitter while being careful to avoid allegations of political bias.

Locker is a successful analytics start-up which had raised more than $280 million, and Google plans to add Locker to Google Cloud. It is envisioned that the new entity will bring together a complete data analytics solution to customers by providing end-to-end analytics platform to connect, collect, analyze and visualize data across Google Cloud, Azure, AWS, on-premises databases and ISV applications. The move comes as Google has been facing some challenges in the cloud infrastructure market, and acquiring Looker, with a current valuation of nearly $2.6 billion, can bring the necessary break the company has been looking for.It envisions forging a new, single piece platform for data where information can be aggregated and made available for business purposes.  If the deal goes through regulatory approval, it is set to close later this year.

This year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo, or E3, has a new entrant and it is raising eyebrows. The world’s largest get-together for some of the biggest names in gaming is set to stage its latest show next week, but one particular name has taken the gaming world by surprise — Google.

Facebook is indisputably one of technology’s biggest companies, boasting an average of 1.56 billion daily active users across it and its Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger family of apps in March 2019, with sixty-six percent of total users being considered daily, rather than monthly, active users.Recent times have seen Facebook taken to task for a string of issues, including data impropriety, controversial and dangerous user-posted content that results in real-world consequences, and privacy concerns.

Google (GOOG,GOOGL) acquires the business intelligence and big data analytics startup for $2.6B in cash to add to Google Cloud.

The daily stochastic readings made a bullish crossover on June 4 and this could indicate better days in the weeks ahead. The Tickeron Trend Prediction Engine generated a bullish signal for Twitter on June 3.Previous signals on Twitter have been successful 78% of the time. Looking at the fundamentals for Twitter, the company has performed extremely well in recent years.