Meta soars as Facebook reports stronger daily user growth | Financial Markets News
Shares of the company rose 15 percent in after-hours trading.
Meta Platforms Inc shares climbed on Wednesday as Facebookâs quarterly daily active users were above Wall Street estimates, even as Meta recorded its slowest revenue growth in a decade.
Shares of the social media giant rose 15 percent in extended trading.
Profit soundly beat Wall Street targets at $2.72 per share, compared with an analyst consensus of $2.56, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.
Daily active users, a key metric for advertisers that indicates activity on Facebook, were 1.96 billion, slightly higher than the estimate of 1.95 billion, according to IBES data from Refinitiv. Monthly active users came in at 2.94 billion, missing Wall Street estimates by 30 million.
Meta has lost about half of its value since the start of the year, after a dismal February earnings when it reported a decline in Facebookâs daily active users for the first time and forecast a gloomy quarter, blaming factors including Appleâs privacy changes and increased competition from platforms like ByteDanceâs TikTok.
In its latest results, Meta forecast second-quarter revenue between $28bn and $30bn. Analysts on average were expecting current-quarter revenue of $30.63bn.
Total revenue, the bulk of which comes from advertisement sales, rose 7 percent to $27.91bn in the first quarter, but missed analystsâ estimates of $28.20bn, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.
Net income fell 21 percent to $7.47bn in the first quarter, but beat analystsâ estimates of $7.15bn, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.
Meta forecast second-quarter revenue between $28bn and $30bn, citing factors including the war in Ukraine. Recent earnings reports from Google parent Alphabet Inc and Snap Inc have signalled the impact of the global economic turmoil on digital advertisement spending.
Meta lowered its expected 2022 total expenses to between $87bn and $92bn, down from its prior outlook of $90bn to $95bn.
