Meta Shares Up 20% As Zuckerberg Vows To Bolster Efficiency

For years, Facebook and its CEO Mark Zuckerberg invested heavily in growth, including in areas like virtual reality with unproven potential.

Photo Insert: Zuckerberg has started speaking Wall Street’s language — and they are rewarding him for it.

But after a brutal year in which the company lost more than $600 billion in market value, Zuckerberg has started speaking Wall Street’s language — and they are rewarding him for it, Clare Duffy reported for CNN.

Facebook-parent Meta on Wednesday posted its third straight quarterly decline in revenue and a sharp drop in profit for the final three months of 2022, as it confronted broader economic uncertainty, heightened competition in the social media market, and incurred significant charges from a recent round of layoffs.

Meta reported better-than-expected first quarter earnings per share of $2.72 compared to analyst expectations of $2.56. Revenue for the quarter fell short at $27.91 billion compared to the expected $28.24 billion.

Facebook became Meta one year ago. Its metaverse dream feels as far away as ever. But the company outperformed Wall Street analysts’ expectations for sales. Meta reported nearly $32.2 billion in revenue for the quarter, down 4% from the year prior but ahead of the $31.5 billion analysts had projected.

The social media giant’s quarterly net income was just shy of $4.7 billion, down 55% from the same period in the prior year and below analysts’ expectations.

Moreover, it pledged to focus on “efficiency,” lowered its forecast for capital expenditures in the year ahead, and announced plans to boost its share repurchase plan by $40 billion. All of that helped send shares of Meta up nearly 20% in after-hours trading Wednesday.

“Our management theme for 2023 is the ‘Year of Efficiency’ and we’re focused on becoming a stronger and more nimble organization,” Zuckerberg said in a statement with the earnings results.

Meta announced plans to lay off around 11,000 employees in November. The company also currently has a broad hiring freeze in place and plans to limit hiring throughout the year, Meta CFO Susan Li said on a call with analysts Wednesday.

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