Facebook is on a roll. The world’s largest online social network posted sharply higher earnings on Wednesday as revenue from mobile advertising continued to grow, along with its user base.
Facebook Inc. said Wednesday that it earned $788 million, or 30 cents per share, in the April-June period. That’s up from $331 million, or 13 cents per share, in the same quarter a year ago.
Adjusted earnings were 42 cents per share, handily beating Wall Street’s expectations of 33 cents, according to a poll by Zacks Investment Research.
Facebook’s revenue jumped 61% to $2.91 billion from $1.81 billion in the same quarter a year ago. Analysts expected $2.8 billion. This was the fifth quarter in a row that Facebook beat Wall Street’s forecasts.
Advertising revenue jumped 67% to $2.68 billion. Mobile ad revenue, a closely watched figure, was 1.66 billion, or 62% of Facebook’s total advertising revenue for the quarter. In the first three months of the year, mobile ads accounted for 59% of Facebook’s total ad revenue.
The steady increase indicates that Facebook is succeeding in steering advertisers to its mobile platform at a time when most of its users are using mobile devices to access the social network.
Facebook had 1.32 billion active users at the end of June, up 14% from a year earlier. On average, 829 million people used Facebook every day in June, up 19% from a year earlier. The number of people who log in at least once a day on mobile devices was 654 million on average in June, up 14% from a year earlier.
“We had a good second quarter,” said CEO Mark Zuckerberg in a statement. “Our community has continued to grow, and we see a lot of opportunity ahead as we connect the rest of the world.”
Shares of the Menlo Park, California-based company have climbed $16.64, or 30%, to $71.29 since the beginning of the year, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 index has climbed 7.5%. The stock has more than doubled in the last 12 months.
