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Shares of Facebook Inc. jumped 4% in after-hours trading Wednesday after the company announced third-quarter results that soundly beat analysts’ earnings estimates and topped revenue forecasts.
The Menlo Park, Calif.-based company FB, -0.56% reported third-quarter net income of $6.09 billion, or $2.12 a share, in the quarter, compared with $5.14 billion, or $1.76 a share, in the year-ago period.
Revenue jumped 29% to $17.65 billion from $13.73 billion a year ago. Advertising sales accounted for 98% of total revenue, or $17.38 billion.
Analysts surveyed by FactSet had estimated $1.91 a share on revenue of $17.37 billion.
“We had a good quarter and our community and business continue to grow,” Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said in a statement. “We are focused on making progress on major social issues and building new experiences that improve people’s lives around the world.”
Read more: Facebook earnings: What distractions? Another strong quarter is expected
Monthly active users (MAUs), a key barometer of the company’s growth, improved 8% to 2.45 billion, as FactSet analysts predicted.
But not all the numbers are rosy.
Americans are spending 26% less time on Facebook than they did two years ago, and they’re increasingly using more social networks as an alternative, according to a new study by market researcher Active Inc.
Facebook users spent on average of nearly 13 hours a month on the platform in 2017; today, that figure is down to 9:28 hours, said Active. At the same time, social media users in the U.S. belong to 5.8 different social media networks; by 2023, it should be 10.
Facebook’s stock is up 44% this year, while the S&P 500 index SPX, +0.33% has gained 21%.
