Facebook Surges To New Highs As Q1 Revenue Jumps 48%: What Investors Should Know

Social media giant Facebook Inc FB shares hit 52-week highs following its first-quarter earnings reported Wednesday.

What Happened: Facebook reported revenue of $26.17 billion, beating analyst estimates of $23.67 billion. The revenue total was up 48% year-over-year. Advertising revenue increased 45% year-over-year and the company’s other segment revenue was up 146% year-over-year.

Facebook reported earnings per share of $3.30, beating the estimate of $2.37.

Advertising revenue was highlighted as strong in the first quarter with the average revenue per ad up 30% year-over-year and a 12% year-over-year increase in the number of ads delivered.

“We had a strong quarter as we helped people stay connected and businesses grow,” said CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

The company reported 1.88 billion daily active users, up 8% year-over-year, as well as 2.85 billion monthly active users, up 10% year-over-year.

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What’s Next: Advertising revenue is expected to stay strong the rest of the year with higher revenue per ads, the company said.

Second-quarter revenue is expected to “remain stable or modestly accelerate” for Facebook. Third- and fourth-quarter revenue is expected to decelerate facing tough comparisons from the prior year.

“We continue to expect increased ad targeting headwinds in 2021 from regulatory and platform changes,” the company said.

Facebook increased the expenses estimate range for the full year from a range of $68 billion to $73 billion to a new range of $70 billion to $73 billion. The increase comes from higher expenses and investments in new areas.

“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,” Zuckerberg said.

FB Price Action: Shares of Facebook are up 5% to $322.34 in after-hours trading. Shares traded between $182.56 and $315.88 over the last 52 weeks.