Facebook shares surge after revenue jumps 60%

Facebook's stock is soaring after the company reported a 60 per cent revenue increase in the third quarter, surpassing Wall Street's expectations for the second quarter in a row.

The world's largest social network said Wednesday that it earned $425 million US, or 17 cents per share. That's up from a loss of $59 million, or 2 cents per share, in the same period a year ago.

Shares of Menlo Park, Calif.-based Facebook jumped $5.22, or 10.7 percent, to $54.23.

Adjusted earnings were $621 million, or 25 cents per share in the latest quarter, six cents better than analysts expected. This figure excludes special items, mainly stock compensation expenses.

Revenue grew 60 percent to $2.02 billion from $1.26 billion, powered by increasing mobile advertising revenue. Analysts, on average, were expecting revenue of $1.91 billion, according to FactSet.

Mobile ads now account for 49 per cent of Facebook's total ad revenue — or just under $900 million — up from 41 per cent in the previous quarter and 30 per cent in the first quarter. Facebook's advertising revenue was $1.8 billion, up 66 per cent from a year ago

The increase shows that Facebook's strategy to become a "mobile-first" company is paying off.

Facebook went public in May 2012 at $38 per share. It took the stock more than a year to surpass that price as the company worked to prove that it could grow mobile advertising revenue at a time when an increasing number of its users were accessing it on cellphones and tablet computers.