Tech giant Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) crushed analyst estimates when it reported first-quarter results on Wednesday.
The company reported adjusted first-quarter earnings of 77 cents U.S. per share on revenue of about $5.38 billion U.S.. Analysts had expected Facebook to report earnings of about 62 cents U.S. per share on $5.26 billion U.S. in revenue, according to a consensus estimate from Thomson Reuters.
In fact, Facebook's earnings per share figure was 10% better than the highest estimate of 41 Wall Street analysts.
Shares in the social network jumped $11.56, or 10.6%, in early Thursday morning trading following the announcement, to a new all-time high of $120.45 U.S., far from a 52-week low of $72.00 U.S.
Facebook also said it was proposing the creation of new class C shares. If the proposal is approved, shareholders would get two C shares for each class A or class B share they own. This would potentially allow Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to sell some of his shares while still maintaining control of the company.
