Facebook shares soar to new record high as Wall Street 'likes' surging mobile advertising revenue

Facebook’s closely-watched mobile advertising revenue accounts for 62% of all advertising revenue

Facebook CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg (Getty Images)

Shares in Facebook jumped to a record high on Thursday as Wall Street welcomed the social network's surge in mobile advertising revenue in the second quarter.

The stock rose 7.6 per cent to a fresh high of $76.74 in early New York trading.

At that price, Facebook's market cap is just short of $200 billion, putting the social network on track to become the fourth biggest tech company in the United States after Apple, Google and Microsoft.

Last night, the social network revealed revenues in the second quarter had jumped 61 per cent to $2.91 billion (£1.71 billion), beating analysts' expectations.

Facebook’s closely-watched mobile advertising revenue made up 62 per cent of all advertising revenue, up from 41 per cent in the same quarter of 2013.

In addition, the social network reported $791 million in net income, up from $333 million in the same quarter of 2013.

"We had a good second quarter," said chief executive and founder Mark Zuckerberg. "Our community has continued to grow, and we see a lot of opportunity ahead as we connect the rest of the world."

Investors pay close attention to Facebook’s "active users" numbers, and these were mostly strong in the latest reporting period. Daily active users were 829 million on average for June, up 19 per cent year on year. Mobiles daily active users were 654 million for June, an increase of 39 per cent year on year.