Opinion: Facebook investors, are you starting to see a pattern yet?

Facebook Inc. Chief Financial Officer David Wehner is the Chicken Little of Silicon Valley, yet investors are still acting on his warnings. For the past five years, Wehner has been saying the sky will fall at Facebook FB, +1.49% in the second half of the year, warning repeatedly of advertising-revenue deceleration, or plateauing and negative impacts from various events. Seriously, just take a look at July 2016, July 2017, July 2018, July 2019 and even July 2020, when Wehner warned that revenue would only grow about 10% in the third quarter (they grew more than 21%). So, of course, in July 2021, Wehner wailed another warning. “In the third and fourth quarters of 2021, we expect year-over-year total revenue growth base to decelerate significantly on a sequential basis, as we lap periods of increasingly strong growth,” Wehner said Wednesday, immediately sending Facebook shares south in after-hours trading, as has regularly been the case with his annual mid-summer caution. Full earnings coverage: Facebook blows past estimates, but warns growth will ‘decelerate’ in second half of year Wehner also warned about the impact of ongoing antitrust litigation and said Facebook expects to see some impact from the changes Apple Inc. AAPL, -1.22%…
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