Facebook skyrocketed past financial analysts' estimates when it released its first quarter (Q1) earnings reports on April 27, Wednesday. The world's largest social network earned 77 cents per share based on revenue of around $5.4 billion, which is about 2.3 percent higher than analysts' projections. In addition, mobile ad revenue made up around 82 percent of Q1, which showed a year-over-year increase of 9 percent.
After Facebook's earnings announcement the company's shares spiked over 9 percent in after-hours trading, according to CNBC. If the social giant opens on April 28, Thursday at those levels it could break its all-time record share price of $117.59.
Most of the California company's growth was from ad revenue. The Q1 figure showed a 57 percent year-over-year rise and was $180 million higher than Wall Street's average estimates.
Mobile ad revenue showed the biggest growth. Facebook reported it was almost a 73 percent year-over-year surge since Q1 of last year. Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg noted that over 3 million businesses are active Facebook users.
The social media company also reported that it had 1.65 billion monthly active users (MAUs) at the end of Q1. This was about .02 higher than Wall Street had projected and a one-fifth year-over-year increase since Q1 2015.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in the company's earnings call that it is focusing on long-term plans while the social network wants to center on its mission and build value.
Zuckerberg shared that his control over Facebook has allowed it to shift to mobile and take big risks by purchasing companies such as Instagram. He admitted that they were contentious moves at first but were good business decisions.
The company's Chief Executive also reported that sharing has increased on the social network. Facebook users are also spending more time using its mobile apps; as well as Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp.
During the earnings Facebook's co-founder also spotlighted the company's focus on video. He said that it is at the start of online video's "golden age."
Tech investors were interested to see Facebook's Q1 earnings after Apple and Twitter's shares dropped sharply based on their April 26, Tuesday earnings reports.
Apple stock prices fell 6.3 percent on Wednesday, which represented a decrease of around $36 billion in market share, according to Reuters. It was one day after the tech giant reported its first-ever drop in smartphone sales before this year's likely launch of iPhone 7.
Her's a report on Facebook's 2015 earnings: