Facebook reaches record high, ends trading above $45

Steven Loeb · September 11, 2013 · Short URL: https://vator.tv/n/31e8

Investors confident now that the social network has proven it can make money off of mobile

For a while it seemed like the road ahead for Facebook's stock was going to be really rough; at one point it was at half of its $38 IPO price and things were looking grim.

The company has made a remarkable turnaround, though, since it was able to prove in its last earnings release that it can make money through advertising revenue. So anyone who stuck with the company through all of the low points of its first year, will now be reaping the benefits.

Facebook's stock reached a record high on Wednesday, going above $45 for the first time since its very first day of trading on May 18th of 2012.

The stock reached a peak of $45.09 during regular trading, ending the day at $45.05, up 3.33% ot $1.45 a share.

The company has seen a remarkable turnaround in its stock price since posting its second quarter 2013 earnings at the end of July. Since that time, when the stock was trading at $26.51 a share, it has skyrocketed nearly 70%.

In that earnings report, Facebook  posted revenue of $1.181 billion for the quarter, beating Wall Street's estimates of $1.62 billion, and up 53% from $1.18 billion in the second quarter of 2012.

Investors were impressed by the gains the company reported in mobile, in both revenue and users.

Monthly active users (MAUs) were 1.15 billion as of June 30, 2013, an increase of 21% year-over-year, while mobile MAUs were 819 million as of June 30, 2013, an increase of 51% year-over-year. Meanwhile daily active users (DAUs) were 699 million on average for June 2013, an increase of 27% year-over-year, while mobile DAUs were 469 million on average for June 2013.

Facebook makes the majority of its money off of advertising, revenue from that sector was $1.60 billion, or 88% of total revenue for the quarter. The company proved that it could make money from mobile, as it accounted for 41% of that revenue.

Facebook's percentage of mobile ad revenue has been increasing every quarter: mobile accounted for 30% of that revenue in Q1,, up from 23% in the fourth quarter of 2012, and up approximately 14% in the third quarter.

And that mobile ad revenue is set to explode this year, according to a report from eMarketer released in June.

The social network is set to see its mobile ad revenue shoot up over 333%, from $470 million to 2.04 billion. That will more than double its worldwide share, from 5.35% to 12.9%.

All of this has made investors more confident that Facebook is not just a passing fad, but a sustainable business that will be around for years to come. 

Later today, Mark Zuckerberg will be interviewed at the Tech Crunch Disrupt conference. It was one year ago today when Zuckerberg declared Facebook to be "mobile company." That statement turned out to be an important turning point, so it will be interesting to see what he has to say this year.

Look for our coverage of Zuckerberg's interview in a few hours.

(Image source: https://ocanasmanzo.com)

Support VatorNews by Donating

Read more from our "Trends and news" series

More episodes