Facebook earnings top Wall Street estimates

Facebook beat Wall Street expectations on Wednesday with second-quarter earnings that saw the world’s largest social network increase its mobile advertising revenue to represent 41 percent of all ad sales.

In the first quarter of this year, mobile ad revenue made up only 30 percent of Facebook’s ad revenue as the company continued to expand its mobile advertising business, amid signs that more people are using Facebook on smartphones and tablets than on desktop or laptop computers.

Wall Street analysts were expecting Facebook on Wednesday to report earnings of 9 cents a share, or 14 cents a share after adjusting for one-time charges, on revenue of $1.62 billion, according to Thomson Reuters.

Instead, Facebook reported earnings of 13 cents a share, or 19 cents a share after adjusting for one-time charges, on revenue of $1.81 billion. A year ago, Facebook saw revenue of $1.18 billion.

Facebook has also partnered with other companies on programs that deliver ads to individual users based on past purchases in retail stores, or to users who have also visited outside websites that may indicate they’re interested in particular products.

“Based on our discussions with the advertising community, we believe these campaigns are exceeding advertisers’ initial expectations,” UBS analyst Eric Sheridan wrote in a note to investors last week.

Baird Research analyst Colin Sebastian agreed. After surveying Internet retailers and other e-commerce companies that advertise on the social network, he reported earlier this month that the companies “are seeing improved performance on the site” and are increasing their budgets for advertising on Facebook.