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This afternoon, the WSJ reported that bears were piling into Facebook (FB) options before the company's earnings report after the bell, anticipating an after-hours drop similar to those that afflicted Amazon (AMZN), Twitter (TWTR) and Netflix (NFLX) after their respective reports. According to the Journal,

The most active weekly Facebook option on Monday was a put that grants the right to sell shares at $80. Facebook shares closed at $80.28 on Monday, down 0.5% from Friday. More of those $80 puts traded near the offer price, indicating that the trades were initiated by investors seeking to buy those put options, said Salil Aggarwal, an equity derivatives strategist at Deutsche Bank AGDBK.XE +2.10%. That’s indicative of bearish sentiment, he said. Investors tend to buy put options to hedge against declines in the underlying stock.

On Tuesday morning, the most heavily traded Facebook option contract was a put expiring Friday that grants the right to sell shares at $77.

Meanwhile, the ratio of Facebook puts to calls traded Tuesday was 0.9, higher than the 22-day moving average of 0.67, according to Trade Alert.

As USA Today explained just pre-earnings report,

Wall Street anticipates another strong showing — despite a warning from the company during its earnings call last quarter that investors should not expect the same kind of growth in the second half of the year.

Wall Street expects Facebook to post revenue of $3.12 billion, up more than 50% from the same quarter a year ago. Adjusted earnings per share — excluding stock compensation and other expenses — are expected to be 40 cents, up from 19 cents a share.

Facebook has beat Wall Street estimates in eight out of nine quarters as a public company including the last five straight quarters.

But Mark Mahaney, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets, is expecting revenue of $3.08 billion and adjusted earnings per share of 38 cents, both below consensus.

Well, Facebook has just reported Q3 EPS of $0.43, beating consensus, and revenue of $3.2B. So why is Facebook still dropping after hours (now down 1.4%)? Maybe those options traders are getting out before a bounce? Or is it due to guidance of higher GAAP and non-GAAP expenses for 2015?

Some early insights into the earnings report are coming in from Reuters.

And here's the official press release.

Update, from Zacks: Facebook Beats, Traders Sell The News