Meta's fourth-quarter earnings report, released on Thursday, showed that its earnings and revenue exceeded expectations and announced its first dividend. The stock surged 14% in after-hours trading.
Here are the key figures:
Earnings per share: 5$33, compared to the expectation of $4 for LSEG (formerly Refinitiv).$96;
Revenue: $40.1 billion versus LSEG guidance of $391$800 million;
According to streetaccount, daily active users (DAUs): 21100 million, expected 20800 million;
According to StreetAccount, Monthly active users (MAU): 30700 million, expected 30600 million;
According to streetaccount, average revenue per user (ARPU): 13$12 vs. $12 expected$81.
As the advertising market continues, revenue for the quarter is up 25% from $32.2 billion a year earlier, the fastest pace since mid-2021. Meanwhile, the company's expenses fell 8% year-on-year to 237At $300 million, operating margin more than doubled to 41 percent, a clear sign that cost-cutting measures were boosting profitability.
Net income was $14 billion, or 5. per share$33, up from $46 in the same period last year$500 million and 1$76 more than tripled.
Meta said it would pay investors 0. per share on March 26$50 dividend. This comes after cash and equivalents surged to $65.4 billion at the end of 2023 from $40.7 billion a year ago. The company also announced a $50 billion buyback program.
The after-hours market continues its 2023 streak, with the stock almost tripling last year. The stock hit an all-time high in January and had accumulated **12% this year, ahead of the earnings report. According to its late-day trading**, Meta's market capitalization has swelled to nearly 1$2 trillion.
Meta's Reality Labs division generated sales of more than $1 billion in the quarter, although the virtual reality division recorded 46$500 million loss.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a statement: "We had a good quarter as our community and business continued to grow. We've made a lot of progress in advancing the vision of AI and virtual worlds. ”
Meta said it expects first-quarter sales to be between $34.5 billion and $37 billion. Analysts had expected revenue of $33.8 billion. Spending in 2024 will be between $94 billion and $99 billion.
Meta said that as of Dec. 31, the company had a total of 67,317 employees, a year-on-year decrease of 22% after layoffs.
Meta CFO Susan Li said in a meeting with analysts that the biggest drivers of revenue growth came from companies in e-commerce, entertainment and gaming.
Meta's financial recovery over the past year has been driven in part by Chinese retailers who have increased spending to reach users around the world. Fast-growing upstarts Temu and Shein, which originated in China, have been advertising on Facebook and Instagram. Susan Lee said Thursday that advertising revenue from China accounted for 10 percent of sales this year, up 5 percentage points.
Zuckerberg said advances in artificial intelligence are helping to support the advertising business, which is growing faster than rival Google. In Alphabet's earnings report on Tuesday, the company said that Google's ad revenue rose 11% year-on-year, a slower pace than analysts expected.
Meta's report came at the same time as Amazon's and Apple's earnings reports, marking the end of Big Tech's earnings season. Amazon reported better-than-expected results, continued growth in the advertising business, and Apple also exceeded expectations, reporting revenue growth for the first time in a year.
Zuckerberg said Meta will continue to invest in AI and build its own computing infrastructure to handle larger workloads. But this growth won't be much in terms of headcount. Zuckerberg said the company has a "significant hiring backlog" because it is still working on organizational changes related to last year's layoffs and adding staff in areas where investment has increased.
As for the company's ongoing hiring plans, Zuckerberg said there would be "relatively few new hires" as he wanted to "keep it lean".
Zuckerberg, as well as executives at social networking companies TikTok, X, Snap and Discord, faced tough questions from U.S. lawmakers at Wednesday's hearing. Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee accused the Facebook founder of ignoring the seriousness of child exploitation in the company's family of apps.
Parents who attended the hearing harshly condemned Meta and other companies, saying their inadequate safety and design measures caused mental health problems for their children and, in some cases, even their deaths.
I'm sorry for what you've been through. It's horrible. Speaking to an agitated pair of parents on Capitol Hill, Zuckerberg said, "No one should have to go through what your family is going through." ”