Updated

In case anyone had forgotten amid its unending data and privacy issues, Facebook Inc. actually is a business — one that keeps making a lot of money. The social networking giant proved that once again today.

Facebook reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter results, with a profit per share before costs such as stock compensation of $2.38 a share on a 30 percent jump in revenue, to $16.91 billion. That easily beat analysts’ consensus forecast of a $2.18-per-share profit on $16.4 billion in revenue.

As a result, Facebook’s shares soared nearly 12 percent in after-hours trading. That’s on top of a more than 4 percent rise in regular trading, to $150.42, on a big up day for the overall market. Update: Shares maintained the 12 percent rise in Thursday morning trading.

Two quarters ago, Facebook had warned of slowing revenue growth as it focused more on customer security, community growth and long-term strategies that won’t be profitable for awhile. Investors immediately knocked 19 percent off its stock price.

But a quarter later, things hadn’t gotten worse, so investors pushed shares up a few percentage points on the earnings news. Since a record high last July, shares are down 33 percent.

Today, it appears Facebook’s business, 93 percent of which is mobile ads, is on a more even keel. That’s in stark contrast to the ongoing criticism of some users, various governments and other groups over its seemingly constant issues with privacy and data use.

Indeed, prepared comments by Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg (pictured) continued to acknowledge Facebook’s challenges on that front. “We’ve fundamentally changed how we run our company to focus on the biggest social issues, and we’re investing more to build new and inspiring ways for people to connect,” he said.

On the earnings conference call with analysts, Zuckerberg talked about four priorities: making more progress on the social issues, building new services and experiences that “meaningfully improve people’s lives,” keep expanding its business to help small businesses on its platform, and becoming more transparent in communications with users and the public.

Still, none of the many current concerns appears to be getting in the way of Facebook’s ability to attract users and advertisers alike.

“Despite all the negativity toward Facebook that was generated during 2018, there remains a significant bright spot: advertisers continue to find real value in the platform,” Investing.com senior analyst Haris Anwar told SiliconANGLE. “As such, its dominant position in the digital ad market remains intact. Facebook’s ability to squeeze out yet more ad revenue at a time when growth in its daily active users in the U.S.and Canada is flattening can change the equation for the social media giant.”

On the other hand, not all that much changed either, Brian Wieser, an analyst with Pivotal Research, wrote in a note to clients.

“While 4Q18 was certainly favorable, nothing in the results should cause investors to look at the company in a meaningfully different way,” said Wieser, who maintains a sell rating on Facebook stock. “Costs for platform safety seem almost certain to cause ongoing margin erosion (probably more than the company anticipates beyond 2019) and capturing advertiser budgets that would otherwise go to premium video platforms will require substantially greater investments in premium content on Facebook’s part.”

Active users came more or less on target as well. Monthly active users for Facebook and its Messenger app rose 9 percent from a year ago, to 2.32 billion, slightly beating a 2.31 billion analyst forecast, while daily active users also rose 9 percent, to 1.52 billion, even with the consensus.

Facebook’s Instagram app in particular remains a big growth driver.

“Instagram has seen phenomenal success, with our data showing ad placements increasing by 5.5 percent while Facebook’s decreased by 15 percent,” Yuval Ben-Itzhak, CEO of the social media marketing platform Socialbakers, said in an email to SiliconANGLE. “In 2018 Instagram became the go-to app for brand engagement thanks to its exciting formats and ability to attract influencers. Overall, the Facebook family of apps has the breadth of formats and the reach marketers are looking for.”

One shadow on the results: Chief Financial Officer David Wehner said on the call that first-quarter revenue growth would decelerate from the fourth quarter, when advertisers spent more on direct-response ads as well as ads on Instagram feeds and the newer Stories feature.

Among the new services Zuckerberg talked about was its Watch video service, which is said more than 400 million people are now using monthly. He also said there are plans for new shopping experiences for Instagram this year.

Facebook keeps hiring at a breakneck pace, with headcount up 42 percent in 2018, to 35,587.

Photo: Robert Hof