Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) released its fourth quarter earnings report after closing bell tonight, posting non-GAAP earnings of $1.41 per share on $8.81 billion in revenue. Analysts had been expecting earnings of $1.30 per share on $8.51 billion in revenue. The social media company reported earnings of 79 cents per share on $5.84 billion in the same quarter a year previously.
Facebook’s earnings soar
GAAP earnings per share rose 124% year over year to $1.21 per share, while net income rose to $3.6 billion from $1.6 billion in the same quarter a year before. Ad revenue rose to 53% year over year to $8.6 billion, while analysts were looking for about $8.4 billion. Payments and other fees revenue slipped 12% year over year to $180 million. Mobile ad revenue made up about 84% of total ad revenue for the fourth quarter, an increase from 80% in the fourth quarter of 2015.
The number of daily active users rose 18% to 1.23 billion in December, while monthly active users rose 17% to 1.86 billion. Analysts were expecting to see Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB)’s user base grow to about 1.8 billion, an increase of around 14% year over year. The number of mobile daily users rose 23% year over year to 1.15 billion, while mobile monthly active users rose 21% to 1.74 billion. The company had 1.79 billion users at the end of the third quarter, and global engagement hit 66% in the third quarter, a record high looking at daily and monthly active user numbers.
Looking forward to Facebook’s earnings call
Another key area for tonight’s earnings report is management’s outlook for operating expenditures for this year, so you can bet that investors and analysts will be listening carefully for this metric on the earnings call. JPMorgan analysts are expecting a 42% increase this year and warned that investors might not like anything in the 50% to 60% growth range. On the other hand, he speculated before tonight’s report that investors would be pleased with a 40% to 50% growth rate in operating expenditures.
Shares of Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) stock jumped by about 3% in after-hours trading tonight, touching a new record high above $136 per share.
