It is trading at the highest price since Facebook's IPO in May 2012. The stock opened then at $38 per share; it closed yesterday at $34.36 up from the low 20s. The nearly 30% increase means Mark Zuckerberg, who vowed not to sell any of his shares during Facebook's first year as a publicly-traded company, is worth $3.7 billion more today than he was yesterday morning. That brings his total net worth to about $16.1 billion.
The sudden faith in Facebook stems from its visible improvement in mobile. During Wednesday's earnings call, Zuckerberg noted that 41% of Facebook's total ad revenue was coming from mobile, up from 30% the quarter prior. Mobile monetization is something investors are watching closely; the unsuccessful transition from a desktop to a mobile experience is killing other companies quickly.
Facebook's revenue also beat Wall Street expectations on Wednesday. The social network reported revenue of $1.81 billion versus the $1.62 billion analysts were expecting. Importantly, Facebook's mobile monthly active users are also rising. Facebook reported mobile MAUs of 819 million, up 51 percent year over year.