Facebook soars after 2Q results beat estimates

SAN FRANCISCO -- Facebook's stock is soaring after the world's biggest social network posted higher revenue from mobile ads and delivered a healthy second-quarter profit that reversed a loss a year ago.

Facebook Inc. said Wednesday that it earned $333 million, or 13 cents per share, in the April-June period. That's up from a loss of $157 million, or 8 cents per share, a year ago. Adjusted earnings were $488 million, or 19 cents per share, above the 14 cents that analysts were expecting.

The Menlo Park, Calif.-based company's stock jumped $4.93, or 18.6 percent, to $31.44 in extended trading. The stock priced at $35 when Facebook went public in May 2012 and hasn't hit that since.

Facebook's revenue grew 53 percent to $1.81 billion from $1.18 billion, well above the $1.62 million that analysts polled by FactSet were expecting. Facebook has also quickened the pace of its revenue growth. In the first quarter, revenue grew 38 percent and in the fourth quarter of last year, 40 percent.

Mobile revenue was $655.6 million, or 41 percent of the quarter's total advertising revenue of $1.6 billion.

"We've made good progress growing our community, deepening engagement and delivering strong financial results, especially on mobile," said CEO Mark Zuckerberg, in a statement. "The work we've done to make mobile the best Facebook experience is showing good results and provides us with a solid foundation for the future."

Facebook had 1.15 billion monthly active users as of June 30, up 21 percent from a year ago. The number of monthly mobile users grew 51 percent to 819 million.

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