Facebook user growth and ad income lead to earnings beat

Social network company Facebook Inc easily surpassed expectations in the first quarter of 2017, helped by another surge in mobile ads and a growing user base.

The company founded by Mark Zuckerberg reported diluted earnings per share of $1.04, ahead of the 87 cents per share forecast by analysts, and 73% higher than the same period of 2016.

Revenue also pushed higher than estimated. Facebook brought in $8bn during the quarter, compared with the $7.8bn predicted before the release.

Facebook’s figures were boosted by another strong performance in its mobile advertising revenue, which made up as much as 85% of the firm’s total income for the quarter. As well as the Facebook website and app itself, the company also owns social media outlets Whatsapp, Instagram and Messenger.

Facebook’s figures were boosted by another strong performance in its mobile advertising revenue

Zuckerberg praised the results in a post on his own profile on Wednesday, and said that Facebook was planning to focus on "building community" in the coming quarters.

"Our next focus is building community. More than 100 million people on Facebook are members of "very meaningful" groups -- like parent support groups or illness support groups that are an important part of their lives. My hope is to help more than 1 billion people join very meaningful groups to strengthen our social fabric over the next few years."

Analysts at Jefferies hiked their target price to $192 from $175 after another "huge" revenue and EPS beat for the social media giant, with fears over rising expenses not materialising as some investors feared.

"There are now 5 million advertisers serving ads into FB's massive base of over 1.9bn users; an unrivaled network connecting every advertiser and consumer on the planet.

"Management reiterated full-year expenses will rise 40-50% in 2017; our model assumes the low end of the range given prior conservatism on opex outlook."

Facebook announced on Wednesday that it was hiring 3,000 new staff in an effort to step up its review of streaming content, after a number of violent acts remained on the site for hours before being taken down.