Facebook Profit Surges On Ad Revenues

(RTTNews) - Facebook Inc. (FB), Wednesday reported a fourth-quarter profit that surged from a year ago, as the social networking giant's ad revenues continues soar. Both earnings and revenues trumped Wall Street expectations.

Menlo Park, California-based Facebook's fourth-quarter profit surged to $3.57 billion or $1.21 per share from $1.56 billion or $0.54per share last year.

Adjusted earnings for the quarter rose to $4.15 billion or $1.41 per share from $2.27 billion or $0.79 per share last year. On average, 40 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters estimated earnings of $1.31 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude one-time items.

Revenues for the quarter surged 51 percent to $8.81 billion from $5.84 billion last year. Analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $8.51 billion for the quarter.

Daily active users rose 18 percent to 1.23 billion on average for December, while monthly active users increased 17 percent to 1.86 billion. Mobile daily users gained about 23 percent to 1.15 billion on average for December, while mobile monthly users increased 21 percent to 1.74 billion.

Revenues of Facebook, the world's most popular social networking site, continues to surge every quarter as companies and other firms continue to spend heavily to advertise on the social network.

Mobile advertising revenues continue to be dominant contributor to ad revenues as it represented 84 percent of advertising revenue for the quarter, up from 80 percent last year. Total advertising revenues surged 53 percent to $8.63 billion.

"Our mission to connect the world is more important now than ever," said Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder and CEO. "Our business did well in 2016, but we have a lot of work ahead to help bring people together."

Total costs and expenses climbed 29 percent to $4.24 billion, as Facebook continues to spend heavily on research and development as well as on marketing.

FB closed Wednesday's trading at $133.23, up $2.91 or 2.23%, on the Nasdaq. The stock further, gained $2.70 or 2.03% in the after-hours trading.