Facebook keeps its streak alive today by beating analyst expectations for the ninth consecutive quarter in a row.
“We had a good second quarter,” said Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder and CEO, 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.”
The social media powerhouse earned 42 cents a share on revenues of $2.9 billion, easily exceeding analyst expectations of 32 cents a share on revenues of $2.81 billion. (On a GAAP basis, the company earned 30 cents a share, but analyst estimates are best compared to non-GAAP results.)
Revenues were up an impressive 61 percent, compared with the second quarter of 2013, fueled by a 67 percent year-over-year gain in advertising. Mobile advertising was particularly strong, making up about 62 percent of advertising revenue in Q2 (A year ago, mobile advertising accounted for 41 of advertising revenue). Payments and other revenue totaled $234 million, up a paltry 9 percent.
All of Facebook’s major usage metrics are also trending in the right direction, although growth is slightly less spectacular compared to the prior quarter.
For example, daily active users totaled 829 million on average for June 2014, an increase of 19% year-over-year. In the first quarter, however, Facebook witnessed increases of 21% year-over year. Likewise, mobile daily active users, which is a super critical indicator now that the company’s revenues derive mostly from handful platforms, totaled 654 million on average for June 2014, an increase of 39% year-over-year. Last quarter, mobile daily active users increased 43 percent year-over-year.
We’ll tune into the company’s second-quarter conference call to see if management addresses these quarterly differences. It’s totally unclear if it will an ongoing trend or is something that could be explained by seasonality or market saturation. It may not even be something analysts would concern themselves with since double-digit gains of any kind are typically a positive, especially when so much of the world is already on a platform. But skeptics are always looking for signs that Facebook’s popularity is cooling.
After a little time to digest the results, Facebook’s shares began trading much higher in after-hours, up $3 to $74.23 a share to hit an all-time high.
