Facebooks rise in profit outweighs slow user, sales growth

Facebook Inc on Tuesday beat profit estimates but missed targets for growing monthly users and reported its slowest revenue growth in about six years in a quarter some investors feared would be hit harder by defections from the social media site.

Facebook is keeping costs in check better than some investors anticipated but is facing challenges growing users, causing shares to swing in both directions after the third-quarter results.

Shares of Facebook were up about 2 percent to $149.25 after initially falling as much as 5 percent following the bell, when they had closed up 2.9 percent at $146.22.

Big winners on Wall Street in recent years, internet giants including Facebook, Amazon.com Inc http://tmsnrt.rs/1SKTFU3)

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