Marketers Like Facebook, to the Tune of $1.18 Billion in Q2 2012 Revenue

Facebook reported $1.18 billion in revenue for Q2 2012 in their first earnings call as a public company. The social network just slightly exceeded analysts expectations of $1.16 billion, according to a poll by FactSet.

The figure represents a 32 percent increase over Q2 2011’s $895 million. According to Facebook, revenue from advertising was $992 million, representing 84 percent of total revenue and a 28 percent increase from the same quarter last year. Payments and other fees revenue for the second quarter was $192 million.

Facebook’s costs also ballooned, topping $1.93 billion for a 295 percent increase YoY. This was primarily driven by share-based compensation.

Other highlights from the pre-earnings call press release include:

Monthly active users were 955 million as of June 30, 2012, an increase of 29 percent year-over-year.Daily active users were 552 million on average for June 2012, an increase of 32 percent year-over-year.Mobile monthly active users were 543 million as of June 30, 2012, an increase of 67 percent year-over-year.Facebook now has independent ROI data from more than 60 advertising campaigns using a variety of third-party methodologies like panels and marketing mix models. The results show that 70 percent of campaigns resulted in a return on ad spend of 3x or better, and 49 percent of campaigns showed a return on ad spend of 5x or better.

On net income, Facebook reported: “GAAP net loss for the second quarter was $157 million, compared to net income of $240 million for the second quarter of 2011. GAAP EPS for second quarter of 2012 was $(0.08), largely reflecting the effect of the accounting treatment of pre-2011 RSUs, as previously noted in the company's initial public offering prospectus. Excluding share-based compensation and related payroll tax expenses, non-GAAP net income was $295 million or $0.12 per share, compared to $285 million and $0.12 per share for the same quarter in the prior year.”

Facebook’s cash and securities grew $10.2 billion, which includes $6.8 billion in proceeds from their IPO.

Time will tell if today’s earnings call will quell the fears of nervous investors. As of 4 p.m. ET, Facebook stock had dropped to $26.84 in the wake of slashed revenue projections from game-maker and revenue driver Zynga.

Some feel stock prices are simply settling to more realistic levels since the overhyped IPO. According to Thomson Reuters data, Facebook stock has been trading at about 70 times its earnings. They put the company's intrinsic value at $9.72 a share, or about one-third its current value, based on estimates of the company's projected growth for the next decade.

Stay tuned for the highlights from Facebook’s earnings call, slated to begin at 5 p.m. ET. We will liveblog the call in the comments of this article.