Facebook Q1 Profit, Revenues Trounce Street View As Ad Revenues Surge; Shares Up 5%

(RTTNews) - Shares of Facebook Inc. (FB) are gaining over 5% in extended trading session on Wednesday after the social networking giant's first-quarter profit nearly doubled driven by strong ad revenue growth. Both earnings and revenues for the quarter trounced Wall Street analysts' estimates.

Menlo Park, California-based Facebook's first-quarter profit surged 94% to $9.50 billion or $3.30 per share from $4.90 billion or $1.71 per share last year. On average, 38 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters estimated earnings of $2.37 per share for the quarter.

Revenues for the quarter surged 48 percent to $26.17 billion from $17.74 billion last year. Analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $23.67 billion for the quarter.

Daily active users were up 8 percent to 1.88 billion on average for March, while monthly active users increased 10 percent to 2.85 billion.

Total advertising revenues rose 46 percent to $25.44 billion. The company said its ad revenue growth was largely driven by a 30% year-over-year increase in the average price per ad and a 12% increase in the number of ads delivered.

"We had a strong quarter as we helped people stay connected and businesses grow," said Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder and CEO. "We will continue to invest aggressively to deliver new and meaningful experiences for years to come, including in newer areas like augmented and virtual reality, commerce, and the creator economy."

Moving ahead, the company expects advertising revenue growth to be driven by price during the rest of 2021.

Facebook sees second-quarter revenue growth to "remain stable or modestly accelerate relative to the growth rate in the first quarter." In the third and fourth quarters, Facebook expects revenue growth to "significantly decelerate sequentially as we lap periods of increasingly strong growth."

FB closed Wednesday's trading at $307.10, up $3.53 or 1.16%, on the Nasdaq. The stock further gained $15.97 or 5.20%, in the after-hours trade.