It’s all mobile advertising at Facebook as the social media giant on Wednesday said it earned $1.04 per share, on $8.03 billion in revenue.
Analysts expected an earnings per share of 87 cents at Facebook, using a new GAAP accounting format for its earnings report, and first-quarter revenue was forecast to rise 46 percent to $7.8 billion, according to Yahoo Finance.
Most of Facebook’s revenue came from advertising, with ad revenue rising 51 percent to $7.86 billion, above a $7.67 billion consensus. Mobile ad revenue represented around 85 percent of overall ad revenue for the first quarter of 2017, up from around 82 percent of ad revenue in the prior-year period.
The company posted net income of $3.06 billion, up sharply from a year-earlier $1.73 billion. “We had a good start to 2017,” said Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg in a statement after unveiling the first-quarter results. “We’re continuing to build tools to support a strong global community.”
Monthly active users were 1.94 billion, just up from a market forecast of 1.91 billion, while daily active users came to 1.28 billion, just above a market estimate of 1.26 billion.
To get the focus of its latest earnings release on mobile advertising, and not controversy around its news feeds, Facebook earlier in the day said it will hire 3,000 more people to review videos and other posts for evidence of crimes and other sensitive content.
Stock in Facebook hit a new 52-week high of $153.60 earlier Wednesday, before closing on the day down 98 cents to $151.90. Despite the earnings beat, shares in the social network were down 40 cents to $151.19 in afterhours trading.
