Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) has released its second-quarter earnings report showing that sales rose by 53% year over year to $1.813 billion in the quarter. Earnings came in at $0.19 per share, versus $0.12 per share a year ago. Thomson Reuters was calling for the report to be $0.14 per share earnings and $1.62 billion in revenues.

Facebook investors are liking what they see here. We have broken out the main metrics that will derive most of the conversation on Thursday. The highlights are continued user growth, mobile ad growth, total revenue and income growth, solid cash balances, and more. Here are some highlights:

• The non-GAAP operating margin was 44% for the second quarter versus 43% a year ago.
• Revenue from advertising was $1.60 billion, which is 88% of total revenue and 61% higher than a year ago.   Mobile advertising revenue was roughly 41% of advertising revenue for the second quarter of 2013.
• Payments and other fees revenue was $214 million for the quarter of 2013, up 11% from a year ago.
• Cash and marketable securities were $10.3 billion at the end of the second quarter.
• Daily active users were 699 million on average in the quarter, up 27% from a year ago.
• Monthly active users were 1.15 billion in the quarter, up 21% from a year earlier.
• Mobile monthly average users were up 51% to 819 million, while mobile daily average users were 469 million for June 2013.
• Excluding share-based compensation and related payroll tax expenses, its expenses were up 52% from a year ago to $1.02 billion.

Facebook’s shares closed up 1.45% at $26.51, against a 52-week trading range of $17.55 to $32.51. The reaction in the after-hours has shares up about 14% at $30.20. If this gain to above $30 holds, this will mark the highest share price going back to the very start of February when shares were at $31.

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