Facebook, the world's largest social network, reported a mixed bag of earnings after market close on Wednesday.
The Menlo Park, Calif.-headquartered company reported first quarter income of $512 million, down by 20 percent year-over-year, or 18 cents per share (statement).
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Non-GAAP earnings were 42 cents per share. Revenue landed in at of $3.54 billion, up more than 40 percent on the year-ago quarter.
Wall Street was looking for earnings of 40 cents per share on revenue of $3.56 billion.
Overall, it's a slight miss on revenue (which would've been the twelfth in a row) but a hit on earnings per share.
Facebook founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said in prepared remarks that the results were a "strong start to the year." Keeping it short and sweet, he added: "We continue to focus on serving our community and connecting the world."
Facebook ended the quarter with 1.44 billion monthly active users worldwide, up from 1.39 billion in the fourth quarter -- a 13 percent increase year-over-year.
As the company ticks off the quarter, mobile remains in prime focus -- particularly making money off a notoriously tricky platform, which most other advertisers are struggling with.
Mobile monthly active users grew by 24 percent year-over-year to 1.25 billion users worldwide. As for its mobile advertising arm, that account for about 73 percent of its overall advertising revenue -- which came in at a total of $3.32 billion.
Its cash position remains strong. At the end of the quarter, Facebook had $12.41 billion in cash and equivalents, up from $11.2 billion at the end of the last quarter.
Wall Street is looking for Facebook to report second quarter earnings of 47 cents per share on revenue of $4.02 billion.
Facebook ended the day up on the Nasdaq at $84.63 per share. In after-hours trading, the company was down by about 1 percent.
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