Barclays Bullish on Facebook's Video

The Facebook Inc FB earnings report was "strong, but expected," said analysts at Barclays. As a result, the firm raised its 2015 and 2016 revenue and earnings forecast and noted the "strong upside potential." However, the analysts seemed most encouraged by Facebook's strong mobile video performance.

Mobile monthly active users (MAUs) and daily active users (DAUs) grew 5 percent and 7 percent, while mobile-only users grew 10 percent from Q4. One in five minutes on mobile devices in the U.S. were captured by Facebook and Instagram.

And those mobile users are consuming videos at an exponential pace, according to Barclays. Daily video views were at 1 billion in September; most recently, it was at 4 billion, with 75 percent on mobile devices.

What does it all mean? Barclays argued that Facebook is in the "early innings of fully monetizing video advertisements." Into the future, there "may be significant upside to revenue given tailwinds on both [video] inventory and pricing."

Facebook is trading 1.2 percent lower in early premarket activity. The stock last changed hands at $83.58 – roughly equivalent to Tuesday's closing price. Barclays has an Overweight rating and a $98 price target on the stock. As of Wednesday's closing price, the stock gained 8.5 percent this year and 53 percent since January 2014.