MENLO PARK, Calif. (AP) _ Facebook Inc. (FB) on Wednesday reported fourth-quarter earnings of $7.35 billion.

On a per-share basis, the Menlo Park, California-based company said it had profit of $2.56.

The results surpassed Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of 12 analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of $2.52 per share.

The social media company posted revenue of $21.08 billion in the period, also topping Street forecasts. Twelve analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $20.89 billion.

Facebook shares have climbed nearly 9% since the beginning of the year, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index has climbed slightly more than 1%. In the final minutes of trading on Wednesday, shares hit $223.54, a climb of 55% in the last 12 months.

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This story was generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on FB at https://www.zacks.com/ap/FB

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