Facebook shares surged 15.5% on Thursday after impressive quarterly earnings

Shares in Facebook rose 15.5 percent on Thursday, the biggest surge since July 2013, after the company reported much better than expected fourth quarter results.

Facebook released results for the fourth quarter and full year ended December 31, 2015.

Revenue for the full year 2015 was $17.93 billion, an increase of 44% year-over year, while net income for the year was $3.69 billion.

Revenue in the fourth quarter was $5.637 billion, up from $4.299 billion in the previous quarter. Mobile advertising revenue accounted for approximately 80% of total advertising revenue in the fourth quarter, up from 69% of advertising revenue in the fourth quarter of 2014.

The tech giant said it had 1.59 billion monthly active users (one quarter of the world’s population) as of December 31 – an increase of 14% year-over-year.

“2015 was a great year for Facebook. Our community continued to grow and our business is thriving,” said Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder and CEO. “We continue to invest in better serving our community, building our business, and connecting the world.”

Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook COO, said during the fourth quarter conference call: “We had a terrific fourth quarter, capping off a great 2015. Q4 ad revenue grew 57%, or 66% on a constant currency basis. Mobile ad revenue reached $4.5 billion, up 81% year-over-year, and is now 80% of total ad revenue.”

Shares in the social networking giant closed at $109.11 on Thursday, valuing the company at approximately $308.6 billion.

Jefferies analysts wrote: “FB has built a remarkable ad platform that enables marketers of all stripes to serve targeted ads to nearly every consumer on the planet,”

Goldman Sachs analysts said in a client note: “We believe Facebook is well positioned to increase its share of digital ad spend as well as to help grow the overall category given its reach and effectiveness for advertisers,”