Facebook Earnings by the Numbers

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Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) beat earnings after the bell yesterday, giving the social network’s stock a nice 4% boost in trading today.
But that doesn’t tell the whole story. While many of the numbers in Facebook’s earnings report were encouraging, there were a few red flags.
Here are some of the key numbers from Facebook’s first-quarter earnings – both the good and the bad:
The Good

  • Mobile. Mark Zuckerberg has been working feverishly to improve Facebook’s mobile presence, and his efforts appear to be working. Mobile-ad sales increased 22% from the previous quarter and now comprise 30% of all its advertising revenue. A year ago, Facebook’s mobile business was almost nonexistent.
  • Revenue and net income growth. Facebook’s revenue was up 38% from a year ago and net income improved 6.8% from the first quarter in 2012.
  • User numbers up. More people are using Facebook than ever before. Monthly user numbers climbed 23% year-over-year to 1.1 billion, while daily users increased 26% to 665 million.

The Bad

  • Flat earnings. Non-GAAP earnings of 12 cents a share were in line with what they were a year ago.
  • More expenditures. First-quarter costs of $1.08 billion were 60% higher than a year ago. That trend should continue throughout the year – the company expects to spend 50% more in 2013 than it did in 2012.
  • Less cash. Cash flow from operations dipped to $441 million from $681 million a year ago. Total cash was also down a tad, to $9.47 billion from $9.63 billion.
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