Facebook's mobile advances have pushed the company's stock price up to its $38 IPO price for the first time since the company went public in May 2012.
Facebook shares hit a high of $38.31 today shortly after the markets opened, but then quickly slid. By mid-afternoon, Facebook's stock was back below $37 a share.
Despite that slip, today's initial climb marked a major milestone for the company, which has had to deal with a sagging stock price ever since its highly anticipated IPO turned out to be tumultuous and disappointing.
The company saw a low last September of $17.55 per share, which would have shocked pre-IPO analysts who had been predicting that the stock would immediately surge to anywhere from $50 to $75 a share.
However, Facebook's stock has been steadying itself since the company announced its positive second-quarter earnings last week.
Dan Olds, an analyst with The Gabriel Consulting Group, said Facebook's strengthening mobile stance is largely pushing the stock higher.
"This is an important step for the company and will help them move past the fiasco that was their IPO," he said. "Facebook's quick pivot into mobile, along with solid financial results, show investors that the company is in the groove and firing on all cylinders. The stock price finally surpassing the initial price of a year ago will give investors confidence that they made the right bet."
Earlier this year, Facebook executives started referring to the social network as a mobile company.
That was a big step since a year earlier mobile accounted for zero of its ad revenue and was more of an after-thought for Facebook and its users.
Facebook also has come up with what has become a highly popular mobile app. It's so popular that it beat Google Maps as the most popular app in the U.S.
"To keep this party going strong, Facebook needs to continue to execute and keep up their momentum both in mobile and the traditional PC space," said Olds. "This all should also restore market and investor confidence in Mark Zuckerberg as a CEO and leader of the company."
