Facebook Shares Explode after Releasing Q1 Earnings Report

All eyes were on Facebook on Wednesday afternoon as the company reported its first quarter 2018 earnings after the closing bell.

The results beat what analysts had been expecting and perhaps relieved many traders who have been watching the social media giant suffer one of its most controversial quarters due to the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

For the first quarter, Facebook reported earnings of $1.69 and revenue of $11.97 billion. Analysts had been expecting earnings of $1.35 and revenues of $11.4 billion.

Monthly active users worldwide also saw a growth and hit 2.2 billion users while analysts had expected 2.19 billion.

“For most of our existence, we focused mostly on the positives, but it’s clear now we didn’t do enough to prevent foreign interference, hate speech or app developers [from mishandling] data privacy,” stated the company’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

He has also stated, “Despite facing important challenges, our community and business are off to a strong start in 2018. We are taking a broader view of our responsibility and investing to make sure our services are used for good. But we also need to keep building new tools to help people connect, strengthen our communities, and bring the world closer together.”

Traders were also impressed to learn that Facebook would be increasing its stock buyback program by $9 billion.

Disclaimer: We have no position in Facebook, Inc. Common Stock (NASDAQ: FB) and have not been compensated for this article.