Facebook, Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) reported stronger-than-expected results for its first quarter. Daily active users were up 8% year-over-year in the first quarter.
Revenues came in at $15.077 billion, compared to $11.966 billion in the prior-year quarter. Net income was $2.4 billion, compared to $4.9 billion in the prior-year quarter.
Diluted EPS were 85 cents, compared to $1.69 in the prior-year quarter, a figure that includes a $3.0-billion legal expense accrued in the first quarter of 2019 related to the ongoing U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) matter as discussed below.
As this expense is not expected to be tax-deductible, it had no effect on FB’s provision for income taxes. Excluding this expense, the company’s operating margin would have been 20 percentage points higher, the effective tax rate would have been 14 percentage points lower and its diluted EPS would have been $1.04 higher.
Daily active users (DAU) registered at 1.56 billion on average for March 2019, an increase of 8% year-over-year. Monthly active users (MAU) were 2.38 billion as of March 31, 2019, an increase of 8% year-over-year.
In the words of CEO Mark Zuckerberg, "We had a good quarter and our business and community continue to grow.
"We are focused on building out our privacy-focused vision for the future of social networking, and working collaboratively to address important issues around the internet."
Shares in the social media giant catapulted $12.23, or 6.7%, to $194.81.
