Facebook Beats On Earnings, Revenue And MAUs; Issues New Stock Class/Dividend

Shares of Facebook Inc FB were up about 8 percent to $117.65 on Wednesday afternoon, following the company's Q1 results.

The social media behemoth posted earnings of $0.77 per share, $0.15 ahead of the Street’s consensus. Revenue of $5.38 billion, up an 52 percent year-over-year, beat estimates by $120 million.

The company's Board of Directors voted in favor of the creation of new Class C shares, which will carry no voting rights, but will be issued as a one-time dividend for Class A and Class B shareholders – who will receive 2 Class C shares for every Class A or B share held. However, the proposal has yet to be approved by shareholders in the 2016 Annual Meeting of Stockholders, scheduled for June 20.

Related Link: Every Facebook Analyst Recommendation And Price Target

"This proposal is designed to create a capital structure that will, among other things, allow us to remain focused on Mr. Zuckerberg’s long-term vision for our company and encourage Mr. Zuckerberg to remain in an active leadership role at Facebook," the company explained.

On top of the bottom and top line beats, Facebook delivered other encouraging numbers, including a 15 percent increase in MAUs, to 1.65 billion. Mobile MAUs were up 21 percent to 1.51 billion.

Mobile advertising revenue represented approximately 82 percent of advertising revenue for Q1 2016, up from 73 percent of advertising revenue in Q1 2015. Mobile ad revenue represented 30 percent of total revenue in 2013.

For comparison, Twitter Inc TWTR reported Q1 MAUs of 310 million.

Disclosure: Javier Hasse holds no positions in any of the securities mentioned above.