Facebook: shares rise as ad business seen stabilising

(CercleFinance.com) - Facebook shares were up nearly 7% on Thursday, a day after the social network posted quarterly results that reassured investors.


First-quarter net profit rose to 4.9 billion dollars, or 1.71 dollar per share, from 2.4 billion dollar, or 85 cents per share, a year ago, the Menlo Park, California-based company said late on Wednesday.

Total revenue increased by 18% to 17.7 billion dollars, above the consensus, as advertising revenue increased by 19% to 17.4 billion dollars, also above consensus, even though COVID-19 had a significant impact on demand from advertisers as from the second week of March.

According to analysts, the most important feature of the report was the group's comments that it saw a "stabilization" in business from late March to April.

"After the initial steep decrease in advertising revenue in March, we have seen signs of stability reflected in the first three weeks of April, where advertising revenue has been approximately flat compared to the same period a year ago," the company said.

The stock was last up 6.8% in early trading, putting its market capitalization at about 590 billion dollars.

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