After the market closed on Wednesday, Facebook (META -10.45%) reported 2014 first-quarter earnings that topped Wall Street's estimates. For the period ended March 31, Facebook generated non-generally accepted accounting principles earnings of $0.34 per diluted share. That was a 183% increase from $0.12 per share in the year-ago period. Analysts were looking for earnings per share of just $0.24 in the quarter.
Source: The Motley Fool.
The social media giant generated revenue of $2.5 billion during the first quarter, which was up 72% from the same period a year ago. That compares to analysts' revenue estimate of $2.36 billion. Mobile daily active users grew 43% year over year, with mobile now accounting for 59% of the company's total advertising revenue.
Alongside these financial highlights, Facebook announced that CFO David Ebersman would step down in a matter of weeks. Ebersman will be replaced on June 1 by David Wehner, Facebook's vice president of corporate finance and business planning. Wehner joined Facebook in November 2012 from Zynga, where he served as CFO.
Ebersman was quoted in the Facebook press release as saying, "This has been a tough decision because Facebook is such a great company and has such a bright future ahead, but I've decided to move back into healthcare where I spent my career before Facebook."
Shares of Facebook were up by nearly 3% on this news in after-hours trading as of 4:50 p.m.
