How Facebook Broke Through to a New All-Time High

Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) reported second-quarter financial results after the markets closed on Wednesday, and absolutely blew investors away with stellar earnings this quarter, impressing on both the top and bottom line. Coming into this earnings season many analysts were questioning the market fundamentals and if the broad markets should be making this rally. Facebook as one of the largest companies on the planet by market cap seems to affirm the idea that this market rally was sound.

Also worth mentioning is that these earnings would help Facebook breakthrough to hit a new all-time high in Thursday trading.

The company said that it had $0.97 in earnings per share (EPS) on $6.44 billion in revenue. There were consensus analyst estimates from Thomson Reuters that called for $0.82 in EPS on $6.02 billion in revenue. The same period from last year had $0.50 in EPS on $4.04 billion in revenue.

Advertising revenue increased 63% to $6.24 billion in the second quarter, while payment and other fee revenue totaled $197 million, a decrease of 8% from last year. Out of the advertising revenue, mobile advertising comprised 84% of the total, up from 76%.

[nativounit]

In the second quarter, capital expenditures were $995 million.

Daily active users (DAUs) totaled 1.13 billion on average for June 2016, an increase of 17% from last year. Mobile DAUs averaged 1.03 billion in June 2016, an increase of 22%.

Monthly active users (MAUs) were 1.71 billion as of the end of June, an increase of 15%, while Mobile MAUs totaled 1.57 billion, increasing of 20%.

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder and CEO, commented on earnings:

Our community and business had another good quarter. We’re particularly pleased with our progress in video as we move towards a world where video is at the heart of all our services.

On the books, cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities were $23.29 billion at the end of the second quarter, versus $18.43 billion at the end of 2015.

Shares of Facebook closed Wednesday up 1.8% at $123.34, with a consensus analyst price target of $143.67 and a 52-week trading range of $72.00 to $123.37. Following the release of the earnings report, the stock was up 6.4% at $131.25 in the after-hours trading session.