It was yet another beat for Facebook as the social media behemoth reported earnings for the fourth-quarter of 2015 on Wednesday. After closing losing nearly 3 percentage points by close of business, Facebook stock is trading up more than 6 percent in after hours trading.
Revenue topped $5.84 billion in Q4, up from $3.85 billion a year ago and ahead of the $5.37 billion analysts had anticipated for the quarter. Earnings per share (Non-GAAP) came in at $0.79, well above the $0.68 expected, and up from $0.54 a year ago. Net income surged from $701 billion a year ago to $1.56 billion in Q4 2015.
Advertising revenue, which accounts for the bulk of Facebook’s earnings, came in at $5.6 billion for the quarter, also well ahead of the $5.2 billion that analysts had estimated. Ad revenue grew 57 percent year-over-year from $3.6 billion. The company saw solid ad growth in all regions, including the US and Canada, which generated over $2.8 billion in ad revenue.
Remarkably, the average advertising revenue per user in the US and Canada was $12.89 in Q4,15. That’s up from $9.86 in the previous quarter and $8.26 in Q4 2014. Overall, ad revenue per user rose to $3.60, up from $2.83 in Q3 and $2.62 in the Q4 2014.
Mobile ads continued to account for a greater percentage of total the revenue pie, climbing to 80 percent of ad revenue in the fourth-quarter, compared to 78 percent the previous quarter.
Daily Active Users (DAUs) ticked up to 1,04 billion in the fourth-quarter, after crossing the billion DAU mark in Q3 to from 1,01 billion in Q3 and 890 billion a year ago.
The number of monthly active users only accessing Facebook properties via mobile also continued to climb, reaching 823 million in the fourth-quarter, up from 727 million in Q3 and 456 million a year ago.
Facebook executives will hold a call with investors today at 5 p.m. EST, which can be streamed here.
