Facebook Reports Strong First Quarter; Revenue, Earnings Beat Estimates

Facebook reported another solid quarter of results on Wednesday with Q1 revenue that beat analysts’ estimates.

Revenue in the first quarter, ending March 31st, rose 49% to $8.03 billion, from $5.38 billion in the same period a year earlier, topping the $7.83 billion expected on average among analysts.

The gains represent Facebook’s eighth straight quarterly revenue beat, buoyed by mobile video ads sales. Mobile ad revenue represented approximately 85% of ad revenue for the first quarter of 2017, up from approximately 82% in the previous year.

Facebook posted a profit of $3.06 billion, or $1.04 a share, up 76% from a year-earlier profit of $1.74 billion, or 52 cents a share, beating analysts’ estimates of $0.87 per share.

“We had a good start to 2017,” said Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder and CEO. “We’re continuing to build tools to support a strong global community.”

Facebook CFO David Wehner warned on a conference call after the earnings announcement that the company expects its ad revenue growth to come down significantly over the rest of 2017.

Facebook shares dipped from a record high on Wednesday in after-hours trading as Wehner’s warning appeared to outweigh Facebook’s surging quarterly profit and revenue.

Facebook reported that daily active users were 1.28 billion on average for March 2017, an increase of 18% year-over-year and monthly active users were 1.94 billion, an increase of 17% year-over-year.

Also of interest, Facebook announced that cash and marketable securities were $32.31 billion at the end of the first quarter of 2017 and headcount was 18,770, an increase of 38% year-over-year.