Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) announced its earnings report for the three month period April- June this afternoon after the markets closed on Wall Street. The company showed earnings of $0.19 per share for the quarter on revenue totaling $1.8 billion. On today’s market Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) stock trended upward, finishing the day at $26.51 per share.
In the lead up to the announcement of these numbers, analysts following Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) were looking for earnings of 14 cents per share from the company by consensus. Revenue in the three months was expected to come to $1.62 billion. In the the same three months of 2013 Facebook earned 12 cents per share.
Mobile remains key
Mobile growth is the most important metric for Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) at the moment as it seeks to prove it can withstand the move to mobile where it has to compete with many more lightweight social networks. The company’s ability to monetize mobile, where display ads are the enemy of the user, has been a key focus of analysts since the company went public last year.
Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) has clearly demonstrated an ability to monetize its social network, at least up to a point, but the stock is still trading at more than two thousand times 2012 earnings, one of the highest valuations on the market. Analysts and investors have a lot of confidence in the company, but its valuation puts a heavy cap on the stock, in the short and perhaps the medium, term.
Facebook performance
Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) shares have lost just over 1% of their value in the year so far. Shares in the company, as demonstrated by its tremendous valuation, are priced to grow, and not in the short term. This leaves shares with very little leeway for upward movement, and little downward movement unless it makes a big mistake, which it hasn’t as of yet.
Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) executives will host a conference call at 5 pm EDT this afternoon in order to discuss the earnings report.
