Facebook Earnings, Revenues Trump Wall Street

(RTTNews) - Facebook Inc. (FB) Thursday reported a third-quarter profit that increased from a year ago, driven largely by 22% growth in revenues. The social media giant's earnings and revenues for the quarter trumped Wall Street estimates.

Menlo Park, California-based Facebook's third-quarter profit jumped 29% to $7.85 billion or $2.71 per share from $6.09 billion or $2.12 per share last year. On average, 42 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters estimated earnings of $1.91 per share for the quarter.

Revenues for the quarter climbed 22 percent to $21.47 billion from $17.65 billion last year. Analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $19.82 billion for the quarter.

Daily active users were up 12 percent to 1.82 billion on average for September, while monthly active users increased 12 percent to 2.74 billion. Total advertising revenues rose 22 percent to $21.22 billion.

"We had a strong quarter as people and businesses continue to rely on our services to stay connected and create economic opportunity during these tough times," said Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder and CEO. "We continue to make significant investments in our products and hiring in order to deliver new and meaningful experiences for our community around the world."

FB closed Thursday's trading at $280.83, up $13.16 or 4.92%, on the Nasdaq. The stock, however, slipped $4.22 or 1.50%, in the after-hours trading.