Facebook Continues Expectation-Beating Streak With A $2.9 Billion Q2

Facebook’s financial winning streak continued today, as the social network reported $2.91 billion in revenues for the quarter ending in June. Analysts had expected 2.81 billion, so this marks the ninth consecutive quarterly report that Facebook has beaten Wall Street expectations. Earnings per share were $0.42, also beating the expected $0.32.

Facebook’s stock, which closed today at $71.29, was up nearly 4% in early after-hours trading.

The revenue total was 61% higher than the second quarter of 2013. Here’s the financial tale of the tape from the Facebook release:

• Revenue from advertising was $2.68 billion, a 67% increase from the same quarter last year. Excluding the impact of year-over-year changes in foreign exchange rates, revenue from advertising would have increased by 65%.
• Mobile advertising revenue represented approximately 62% of advertising revenue for the second quarter of 2014, up from approximately 41% of advertising revenue in the second quarter of 2013.
• Payments and other fees revenue was $234 million, a 9% increase from the same quarter last year.

“We had a good second quarter,” Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in the release. “Our community has continued to grow, and we see a lot of opportunity ahead as we connect the rest of the world.”

Facebook’s world-leading roster of users continued to grow, with the company reporting 1.32 billion monthly active users — YoY growth of 14%. Growth in daily active users since last year at this time was 19% pushing the total to 829 million. And mobile use continues to be a strength, with 1.07 billion users logging on via mobile devices at least once a month. Interestingly, 399 million users — nearly one-third of the total — only access Facebook on their mobile devices.