Meta Platforms Q4 Earnings: Shares Soar On Revenue Beat, Updated Guidance; Here's What Mark Zuckerberg Says

Social media and metaverse company Meta Platforms META announced fourth quarter financial results after the market close Wednesday. Here are the key highlights.

What Happened: Meta Platforms reported fourth-quarter revenue of $32.17 billion, down 4% year-over-year. The revenue figure came in ahead of a Street estimate of $31.53 billion, according to data from Benzinga Pro.

Meta Platforms reported fourth-quarter earnings per share of $1.76, missing a Street estimate of $2.22. The company said earnings per share would have been $1.24 higher without restructuring charges in the fourth quarter.

The company ended the fourth quarter with 2.96 billion daily active people, up 5% year-over-year, across its family of products. Family monthly active people were 3.74 billion at the end of the fourth quarter, up 4% year-over-year.

Facebook daily active users totaled 2 billion in the quarter, up 4% year-over-year. Facebook monthly active users were up 2% year-over-year to 2.96 billion.

The company said the number of ad impressions delivered in the fourth quarter were up 23% year-over-year. The average price per ad was down 22% year-over-year in the fourth quarter.

Total costs and expenses in the fourth quarter rose 22% year-over-year to $25.77 billion. This included restructuring related charges of $4.2 billion.

Full-year revenue for the company was $116.6 billion, a 1% decline year-over-year. The company had costs and expenses of $87.66 billion for the full fiscal year, up 23% year-over-year.

The company ended the fourth quarter with $40.74 billion in cash and $9.92 billion in long-term debt.

“Our community continues to grow and I’m pleased with the strong engagement across our apps. Facebook just reached the milestone of 2 billion daily actives,” Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said.

Related Link: Trading Strategies For Meta Platforms Stock Before And After Q4 Earnings 

What’s Next: Meta is guiding for first-quarter revenue to come in a range of $26 billion to $28.5 billion.

The company is guiding for fiscal year expenses to come in a range of $89 billion to $95 billion, down from a prior range of $94 billion to $100 billion.

“Our management theme for 2023 is the ‘year of efficiency’ and we’re focused on becoming a stronger and more nimble organization,” Zuckerberg said.

Meta announced a $40-billion increase to its share buyback authorization on Wednesday. The company repurchased $27.9 billion of its shares in fiscal 2022. At the end of the fiscal year, the company had $10.87 billion remaining on its share buyback plan prior to Wednesday’s increase.

META Price Action: Meta shares are up 18% to $180.17 in after-hours trading Wednesday.

Read Next: Here's A Look At Recent Price Target Changes By Meta Analysts 

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