The founder of the world's largest social network Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, strengthened his position in the Forbes ranking thanks to successful quarterly reporting. At trading on Thursday, the company rose in price by more than $30 billion in a few hours

Founder of the social network Facebook Mark Zuckerberg (Photo: DyD Fotografos/Geisler-Fotopress)

The fortune of the founder and CEO of the world's largest social network Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, increased by $4.3 billion in the first two hours of trading at the opening of the NASDAQ stock exchange on Thursday, April 28, according to data from the world online ranking of dollar billionaires according to Forbes magazine . After the NASDAQ main trading session closed on the eve of reporting, the publication estimated the entrepreneur’s fortune at $47.5 billion; as of 18:30 Moscow time (trading on NASDAQ began at 16:30 Moscow time), this figure increased to $51.8 billion. Thanks to $4.3 billion Zuckerberg rose to fifth place in the online ranking and surpassed the founder of the Oracle software corporation Larry Ellison.

The growth of fortune was facilitated by the successful reporting of the social network for the first quarter of 2016: on April 27, the company announced that net profit in the reporting period year-on-year increased almost threefold, to $1.5 billion, revenue - by 57%, to $5.2 billion, and the number of monthly active users increased by 15%, to 1.65 billion people.

The price of Facebook shares increased by more than 9% during transactions after the close of the main trading session - immediately after the publication of reports (at the close of April 27, Facebook shares cost $108.9). Trading on April 28 confirmed investor optimism: in the first two hours after the start of trading, quotes rose by almost 10% (to $119.5 per share). Facebook's capitalization over the same period increased by more than $30 billion and amounted to $347 billion.

Zuckerberg owns about 15% of Facebook's share capital. At the same time, by agreement with other shareholders, he retains voting control in the company (about 54% of the votes). In reporting on April 27, the social network announced the issue of a new class of shares - Class C - without voting rights. Each of the holders of Class A and Class B shares will receive two Class C shares for each security they own as dividends. Thus, the social network will maintain its share capital structure, but will give Zuckerberg the opportunity to dispose of his stake without the risk of diluting the status of the controlling voting shareholder. The founder of the social network previously announced his intention to donate 99% of Facebook papers belonging to him and his wife Priscilla Chan to charity.

As Bloomberg notes , Wall Street praised the social network's results for the first quarter of the year. Thus, analysts at Deutsche Bank AG raised their target price for Facebook shares from $145 to $160, and analysts at Citigroup Inc. — from $133 to $144.

Zuckerberg became $4.3 billion richer in two hours