Investing.com - Facebook reported Wednesday fourth-quarter earnings and revenues that beat analysts' estimates.
The social media giant reported earnings per share of $2.38 on revenue of $16.91 billion. Analysts polled by Investing.com expected EPS of $2.18 on revenue of $16.4 billion.
The beat on the top and bottom lines comes as the social media giant continues to add users to its platform despite coming under scrutiny for a series of security breaches last year, which had strengthen calls for increased regulatory oversight of social media platforms like Facebook.
Monthly active users (MAUs), one of the metrics that analysts use to gauge the health of the company, increased 9% to 2.32 billion in the fourth quarter, in-line with Wall Street estimates.
Daily active users (DAUs) rose 9% for the quarter to 1.52 billion, in line with estimates.
The uptick in user growth bolstered fourth-quarter ad sales to $16.64 billion, up 30% from a year earlier. While costs surged 62% to $9.09 billion as the social media giant continued to ramp up efforts to increase security on its websites.
"Our community and business continue to grow," said Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder and CEO. "We've fundamentally changed how we run our company to focus on the biggest social issues, and we're investing more to build new and inspiring ways for people to connect."
Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) shares gained 7.23% to trade at $161.30 in after-hours trade following the report.