Facebook makes friends on Wall Street, shares soar on mobile news Facebook Inc. just made a few friends on Wall Street. Its battered shares had their biggest one-day gain on the heels of a third-quarter earnings report that reassured investors that the giant social network is figuring out how to make money from its growing number of users on smartphones and tablets. Facebook shares closed up $3.73, or 19%, to $23.23 on Wednesday, a far cry from their $38-a-share initial public offering price in May but well above their all-time low of $17.55 in September. Mobile advertising was the key concern for investors who had clipped $50 billion from Facebook's $100-billion-plus market value since the IPO. Few were expecting the surprise revelation from Facebook that 14% of its overall advertising revenue in the third quarter came from mobile. Several analysts raised their price targets on Facebook shares, including Pivotal Research Group and Macquarie Equities Research. Pivotal Research analyst Brian Wieser raised his year-end 2013 price target to $30 from $28 "primarily due to a significant expansion in our expectations of the company's potential revenue base from mobile advertising." Macquarie analyst Ben Schachter raised his price target to $24 from $21. In the near term, the Facebook story is going to revolve around its ability to replace declining desktop revenue with mobile advertising and other new products. Over the long term, we remain convinced that if Facebook can continue to grow users and engagement, its key problem will be prioritizing its revenue opportunities (a high-class problem to have)," he said. Management lays out a compelling case that it is really 'just getting started' with monetization efforts. Facebook reported better-than-expected third-quarter results Tuesday. Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg addressed his commitment to making money on mobile in a conference call with analysts, calling mobile "the most misunderstood" part of Facebook's business. "We are just getting started with mobile product and monetization," Zuckerberg said. Facebook, like other companies, is looking to make the leap from the desktop to smartphones and tablets. Today nearly half of Americans own a smartphone, according to research firm ComScore. Underscoring the trend Tuesday, Apple introduced the iPad Mini to try to extend its share of the mobile market. Still, the question remains: Can Facebook capture as much revenue on mobile devices as it does on the desktop?