Facebook Inc. notched another quarter of revenue that beat estimates after stepping up its mobile-advertising efforts.

The company running the world’s biggest social network reported third-quarter sales of $4.5 billion, compared with the $4.37 billion average analyst estimate, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. There are now 1.01 billion daily visitors checking on other people and sharing status updates, the company said in a statement Wednesday. Monthly users jumped 14 percent to 1.55 billion.

Facebook isn’t just relying on more users -- it’s also putting more ads in front of this vast, growing audience. The company brought its full marketing firepower to Instagram, its mobile photo-sharing application, for the first time in the quarter, while boosting the number of video ads on its main application. Such efforts are working: the average revenue Facebook earned from each user climbed 24 percent to $2.97 in the latest period.

“Their core mobile-advertising business is still very strong and has a lot of runway,” said Josh Olson, an analyst at Edward Jones & Co., who has a buy rating on the stock.

Profit excluding some items was 57 cents a share, compared with analysts’ prediction for 52 cents. Net income rose to $896 million from $806 million.

David Fuller's view

This is a very impressive result from a top US tech / media company.  Facebook remains an outstanding performer in the leading Nasdaq 100 Index.

Facebook should see a little more strength following today’s results but both of these charts are now temporarily overextended relative to their MAs.  Therefore, some reaction and consolidation can be expected before long.  More importantly, however, they provide further evidence that Wall Street’s bull market remains intact.