Adjusted earnings per share came in at 77 cents in the quarter, 24 percent higher than the 62 cents a share that analysts had been expecting.
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In terms of user growth, Facebook continued to add more users this quarter with monthly active users (MAUs) reaching 1.65 billion from 1.44 billion in the first quarter of past year and 1.59 billion in the last quarter. Just over half of Facebook’s 1.65 billion monthly active users only visit the site on a mobile device.
Net income came in at $1.51 billion, up from $512 million the same period a year ago, while revenues increased to $5.38 billion from $3.54 billion. The company reportedly made 82 percent of its $5.2 billion in ad revenue from mobile this quarter.
The proposal, which must still be approved by shareholders, is meant to keep Zuckerberg in an active leadership role at Facebook, the company said.
Both earnings and revenues trounced Wall Street estimates, sending shares up by 6 percent in the after-hours trading.
Facebook saw active users and revenue rise as the social network reported positive financial results. The adoption of the proposal is subject to the approval of stockholders at the company’s 2016 Annual Meeting of Stockholders to be held on June 20, 2016.
That amounts to more than a fifth of the world’s population sharing the social network. Wall Street had estimated 1.63 billion.
As many users in the developing world leapfrog passed desktop computers and straight to smartphones, Facebook’s mobile-only user count grew to 894 million, up 8.62% from 823 million last quarter.
“I’ll be able to keep founder control of Facebook so we can continue to build for the long term, and Priscilla and I will be able to give our money to fund important work sooner”, he wrote in a note on Wednesday. During the quarter, Facebook reported earnings of $0.77 per share off of $5.38 billion in revenue.
Facebook recently expanded its live video product, rolling out several new features and making it more prominent on the app to encourage users to create videos and share them.
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According to research firm eMarketer, Facebook is forecast to account for approximately 12 percent of the $186.81 billion global digital advertising market in 2016. The idea is that the new shares would allow CEO Mark Zuckerberg to sell some of his shares without the threat of losing control of the company. The number of mobile-only MAUs do not include Instagram users unless they would otherwise qualify as such users based on their other activities on Facebook.
