Facebook delivers $1.18 billion in sales and profit of 12c a share in 1st Report

Facebook Inc., in its first ever-earnings report, delivered $1.18 billion in sales and profit of 12 cents a share, just slightly ahead of analysts revenue estimates. But it wasn’t enough to satisfy investors who sent the shares plummeting more than 10 percent after the report as more details on Facebook’s business emerged.

Facebook said today that it now has 955 million users, up 29 percent from a year. Daily active users numbered 552 million in June, up 32 percent a year ago. Mobile users saw the biggest gain, up 67 percent to 543 million.

Average revenue per user was $1.28, up slightly from $1.26 a year ago and $1.21 in the first quarter. Average revenue per user reached a high of $1.38 in the fourth quarter of 2011, according to a presentation on Facebook’s site.

The company also said that costs were high as it spends on infrastructure, R&D, headcount and share-based compensation. There was $1.3 billion in share-based expenses out of a total $1.93 billion in costs.

Ad revenue in the quarter was $992 million, up 28 percent from a year ago. It represents 84 percent of revenue. Payments totaled $192 million, up from $119 million a year ago. Payments were 16 percent of revenue, up from 13.6 percent a year ago.

Remember that Facebook shares were at $38 at IPO and today at $26.84