Facebook (META 1.54%) stock soared to an all-time high at market opening today, and was trading just over $76 in late morning. The jump was fueled by the company's second-quarter financial report that beat expectations on both revenue and earnings.
The consensus analyst estimate was for earnings per share of $0.32 and revenue of $2.81 billion. Earnings and revenue instead came in meaningfully higher at $0.42 per share and $2.91 billion, respectively.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg (right) in his office. Image source: Facebook.
But investors will need to look deeper than the second-quarter EPS and revenue figures to see why the Street is so confident in the social network. It's more evident than ever that Facebook is a money-making machine. Check out these three charts to see the bigger picture of how Facebook is executing proficiently on the most important metrics that drive its business.
The rapid shift to mobile continues
Mobile is still the big story for the company. Mobile daily active users, or DAUs, accounted for 79% of Facebook's total DAUs in the second quarter. That percentage is up from 76% in the first quarter. Facebook's mobile-only monthly active users, or MAUs, hit 399 million, up from 341 million.
This shift has taken the percentage of Facebook's ad revenue from mobile to an all-time high.
Data for chart retrieved from SEC filings.
What's most intriguing about this chart is that it was just over a year and a half ago that 0% of Facebook's advertising revenue came from mobile.
Revenue continues to grow robustly
Facebook's mobile ads are more engaging for users, so the shift toward mobile has driven demand for the company's ad units much higher. This is giving the social network increasing pricing power per ad unit, helping advertising revenue soar as Facebook's ad revenue shifts to mobile.
Data for chart retrieved from SEC filings.
Operating income growth is mind-boggling
When Facebook can increase the price per ad by 123% while ad impressions only decline by 25% from the year-ago quarter, this results in some serious scale. Thanks to Facebook's scalable business model and growing pricing power, the company is still growing operating income by triple digits.
Data for chart retrieved from SEC filings.
While Facebook's continued performance at levels beyond expectations certainly provides more evidence that it has more growth ahead, and that its business may be more scalable than investors had imagined when shares went public at $38 per share, Mr. Market seems to already have taken this into consideration. On the other hand, is Mr. Market simply placing a well-deserved rosy premium on future growth prospects and a sustainable lucrative business model?
Is there any action investors should take? Given the enormously optimistic outlook priced into the stock, investors would likely be best only buying Facebook shares on a meaningful sell-off. On the other hand, the social network's business performance is another reason to hold for investors who already own shares. Should investors consider selling this winner? No way.
