Facebook’s earnings nearly tripled and revenue grew sharply in the first quarter, surpassing Wall Street’s expectations thanks to an 82 per cent increase in advertising revenue.
It was the fourth quarter in a row that Facebook beat forecasts as it continues to barrel ahead in mobile advertising at a time when nearly 80 per cent of its users are accessing it on smartphones and other portable gadgets.
The world’s biggest online social network said yesterday that it earned $642 million, or 25 cents per share, in the January-March quarter, up from $219 million, or 9 cents per share, in the same period a year ago.
Adjusted earnings, which exclude stock compensation expenses and other costs, were $ 885 million, or 34 cents per share, in the latest quarter. Facebook’s revenue was $ 2.5 billion, up 71 per cent from $1.46 billion in the same period a year ago.
Analysts, on average, were expecting adjusted earnings of 24 cents per share on revenue of $ 2.36 billion, according to a poll by FactSet.Shares of Menlo Park, California-based Facebook climbed $2.34, or 3.8 per cent, to $ 63.71 in extended trading after the results came out. The stock had closed down $1.67, or 2.7 per cent, at $ 61.36 amid a broader market decline.
There were 1.28 billion monthly Facebook users at the end of March, up 15 per cent from a year earlier. The number of users who log in every day increased 21 per cent to 802 million.
The number of Facebook users who log in at least once a month using mobile devices climbed 34 per cent to surpass 1 billion for the first time. Daily mobile users were 609 million, up 43 per cent from a year ago.
Advertising revenue totalled $ 2.27 billion. Of this, mobile advertising accounted for $ 1.34 billion, or 59 per cent. That’s a bigger share than in the fourth quarter of 2013, the first time mobile accounted for more than half of Facebook’s ad revenue, at 53 per cent.
Facebook held a 6 per cent share of worldwide digital ad revenues last year, according to research firm eMarketer, which expects the company’s share to grow to nearly 7 per cent this year.