Facebook earnings beat; shares jump 20%

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Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg at company headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif.

Facebook reported second-quarter earnings and revenue that beat Wall Street forecasts on a growing mobile ad business, sending shares surging in late trading.

The social media giant reported revenue of $1.81 billion, up 53 percent from $1.18 billion a year earlier.

Mobile advertising revenue represented about 41 percent of Facebook's $1.60 billion in total advertising revenue in the quarter. Mobile made up just 30 percent of ad revenues in the first quarter.

(Read more: Behind the massive bet on Facebook)

"They've taken three or four quarters to try to fix the mobile issue," RBC Capital Markets analyst Mark Mahaney told CNBC. "They've gone from zero of their revenue being mobile to almost 50 percent now. That's pretty good evidence that they've fixed the mobile issue."

Mobile monthly active users were 819 million as of the end of the quarter, an increase of 51 percent over the same quarter last year. Mobile daily active users were 469 million on average for June.

Daily active users rose 27 percent to 699 million on average for June, while monthly active users averaged 1.15 billion as of the end of the quarter.

"The investments we have made over the past year are really paying off to position the company to thrive in a mobile world," Facebook CFO David Ebersman told CNBC.

Facebook's earnings excluding items came in at 19 cents per share versus 12 cents per share a year earlier. Estimates called for the social media giant to post earnings of 14 cents per share on revenue of $1.62 billion, according to Thomson Reuters.

(Read more: Facebook earnings just the start: pro)

"This is the best quarter by far since they've gone public," Dan Niles of Alpha One Capital Partners said. "The big thing that stands out amongst all the metrics is their profitability."

Niles pointed out that an improvement in the company's operating margin was why they had a 5 cent earnings per share beat.

The stock shot above $30 per share for the first time since February in heavy after-hours trading volume. The last time the stock closed above $30 was on January 31.

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