Facebook Inc's shares were set to open up to a lifetime high after the company's resounding revenue growth underscored CEO Mark Zuckerberg's success in selling ad space on the social network's mobile app.
At least 30 brokerages raised their price targets on Facebook's shares. The stock, which has never before traded higher than $60 U.S. during market hours, was at $61.80 U.S. soon after the bell on Thursday, a jump of $8.27, or 15.5%.
The highest price target among the 30 brokerages was $82 U.S.
Facebook's fourth-quarter revenue rose to $2.585 billion from $1.585 billion U.S. in the year-ago period, beating analysts' average expectation of $2.33 billion U.S.
Facebook, which has a market value of $136 billion U.S., said revenue from mobile ads represented 53% of its total fourth-quarter advertising revenue, up from 49% in the third quarter.
While the total number of ad impressions on Facebook declined 8%, some analysts attributed that to the company's shift to mobile and focused instead on the near-doubling of ad pricing in the last year.
Tech Insider
