Facebook Inc (FB) Stock Up By 5 Percent, Securing Social Network's Spot In $300 Billion Club

Facebook has pulled in even more numbers to tout in its ascendance to tech dominance. The social networking giant is now among the biggest tech companies in terms of market value as its stock opened Thursday at about $108 per share, up by 5 percent, and valuing the company at a record $306 billion.

The share-price uptick follows the company’s report of third-quarter earnings after market close Wednesday. The results, which came in at $4.5 billion in revenue and 57 cents per share, beat analysts’ estimates and sent the stock up by 2 percent in after-hours trading.

Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) has now secured a place in the "$300 billion tech club,” joining Apple, Alphabet (Google) and Microsoft with having market capitalization at about $300 billion. E-commerce giant Amazon also joined the club as of Wednesday.

Facebook’s third-quarter report also revealed several more numbers that had investors impressed. Most notably, the network’s video pitch is paying off for mobile advertisers and also continuing to account for more eyes. Video views on Facebook are now at more than 8 billion views per day, up from more than 4 billion first announced in April.

The ads are also boosting sales in international markets. For one unnamed retailer based in Norway, paying for $35,000 ads in Facebook’s carousel format -- showing multiple images -- led to about $2 million in sales, Facebook’s Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg told investors on the earnings call Wednesday.

While Twitter's user growth has for the most part stagnated, Facebook's has continued to climb as it expands its reach into international markets. “Facebook is the strongest and most consistent company in the social space," James Gellert, CEO of Rapid Ratings, a company that assesses the financials of public and private companies, said in a statement.

“Facebook is doing a good job across the board: continued user growth, increase in advertising, increase in mobile and efficient use of the cash. This position makes Facebook not just a leader in the social space, it makes it one of the more efficient companies in the US," Gellert continued.

While Facebook still is unable to fully capture the lucrative Chinese markets (the social network is blocked to consumers), CEO Mark Zuckerberg touted that some of the highest advertising spends on the network come from companies based in China. “You can't have a strategy of trying to connect the world and leave out the biggest country," Zuckerberg said.