Facebook revenues soar on rising demand for mobile ads

Facebook (FB) is on a roll. 

The social media giant said Thursday that its quarterly revenue had jumped nearly 56 percent, topping analyst forecasts, amid strong growth in mobile advertising.

The Menlo Park, California-based company reported a profit of 82 cents per share on record revenue of $7.01 billion for the period. Earnings, adjusted for one-time gains and costs, came to $1.09 per share. 

The results exceeded Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of 15 analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of 97 cents per share. Eleven analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $6.92 billion.

Mobile ads accounted for roughly 84 percent of Facebook’s advertising revenue in the quarter, up 6 percent from the year-ago period. 

Facebook shares have increased 22 percent since the beginning of the year, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 index has risen nearly 3 percent. In the final minutes of trading on Wednesday, shares hit $127.17, a rise of 23 percent in the last 12 months. The stock slipped 1.6 percent, to $125.10, in after-hours trading. 

Facebook said it had about 1.8 billion active users as of September, up 16 percent from a year ago. 

“We’re making progress putting video first across our apps and executing our 10-year technology roadmap,” said Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder and CEO, in a statement. 

In a conference call to discuss the company’s latest financial results, Facebook executives said its ad revenue is likely to slow in 2017 and that it expects to boost its capital investitures.