The parent company that owns Facebook and Instagram, Meta, saw an 11% surge in its stock price in after-hours trading on 26th April, Wednesday. The surge came after the company released its first quarter report that showed it had performed better than estimated earlier.
Meta’s earnings fared much better compared to those estimated by analysts. Meta earned $28.65 billion in revenue, which is higher than the analysts' estimate of $27.67 billion. Advertising revenues have gotten better for Meta with the company earning $28.1 billion in ad revenue. The ad impressions on the family of apps increased by 26% year-on-year. Unlike previous years, when ad revenue had steadily gone down. The company continued to bear losses for Reality Labs with $3.99 billion worth of total loss. Company’s Q2 revenue is estimated to be $29.48 billion.
‘The Year of Efficiency’ for Meta
Meta was in the news recently as it announced layoffs last month. It touted 2023 to be the ‘Year of Efficiency’. The company announced it will cut 10,000 jobs in March. The company completed a similar exercise in November. The company's estimated expenditure for the year went down from 101 billion dollars to 86-90 billion dollars.
Re-purchasing shares
Unlike Microsoft and Alphabet, Meta is buying back. Meta repurchased $9.22 billion dollars worth of its own shares in March 2023. The company has authorized a re-purchase of $41.73 billion of its own stock.
