Facebook Beats Q2 Estimates as Mobile Ads Revenue Soar (FB)

Shares of Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) soared in afterhours trading on Wednesday as the social networking giant’s fiscal second quarter results topped analysts’ consensus estimate, aided by rising revenue from mobile ads business. For the fiscal second quarter, the Menlo Park CA based Company reported adjusted earnings of 19 cents a share compared to 12 cents a share, in the year-earlier quarter. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had forecasted earnings of 14 cents a share. Revenue jumped 53% to $1.81 billion from $1.18 billion, in the same quarter of last year. Analysts’ consensus estimate was for revenue of $1.62 billion. Revenue from advertising stood at $1.60 billion with income from mobile ads accounting for 41% of the total ad-revenue in the fiscal second quarter. In the previous quarter, revenue from mobile-ads made up only 30% of the total advertising revenue. Commenting over sharp jump in mobile-ads revenue, Facebook’s Chief Financial Officer, David Ebersman said to CNBC, “The investments we have made over the past year are really paying off to position the company to thrive in a mobile world.” “The company is successfully making the transition to mobile and new ad formats are working really well. Facebook’s ad exchange works really well,” commented Arvind Bhatia, an analyst at Sterne Agee, according to Reuters. Monthly active users climbed 51% in the recently concluded quarter, YOY, to 819 million while daily mobile active users were 469 million in the month of June. Meanwhile, daily active users rose 27% to 699 million on average in June while monthly active users averaged 1.15 billion, in the recently concluded quarter. Facebook shares climbed 16.75% in afterhours trading to $30.95, having gained 1.45% in regular trading hours on Wednesday. The stock crossed $30.00 level mark for the first time since February amid heavy volume trading. Facebook’s stock last closed above $30.00 on January 31.