Facebook shares surge despite looming FTC fine of up to $5B over privacy issues

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During the first quarter, Facebook posted $1.86 in earnings per share, higher than the $1.63 per share expected by Wall Street analysts. Its revenue was $15.077 billion, which exceeded that $14.97 billion forecasted by analysts.

The company’s earnings and revenue increased by 26 percent from the same period a year ago.

Facebook’s daily active users (DAUs) were 1.56 on average while its monthly active users (MAUs) were 2.38 billion, an increase of 8 percent year-over-year.

“We had a good quarter and our business and community continued to grow. We are focused on building out our privacy-focused vision for the future of social networking, and working collaboratively to address important issues around the internet,” said Zuckerberg.

In a note to clients, Brian Nowak, an analyst at Morgan Stanley, commented that Facebook’s financial results “speaks to the strength of its engagement, ad offering and ability to drive earnings power … even while aggressively investing to improve its platform safety/security, product offerings, and monetization.”