Meta Q1 Earnings: EPS Beat, Revenue Up 16%, AI Approaches 1 Billion Monthly Actives, Capital Expenditures Forecast Raised

Meta Platforms Inc META reported first-quarter financial results after the market close on Wednesday. Here’s a look at the key details from the quarter.

Q1 Earnings: Meta reported first-quarter revenue of $42.31 billion, beating analyst estimates of $41.39 billion. The company reported first-quarter earnings of $6.43 per share, easily beating analyst estimates of $5.21 per share.

According to data from Benzinga Pro, Meta exceeded analyst estimates on the top and bottom lines in nine straight quarters.

Total revenue in the first three months of the year was up 16% on a year-over-year basis. Family daily active people climbed 6% year-over-year to 3.43 billion. Ad impressions jumped 5% year-over-year and average price per ad increased by 10% year-over-year.

Operating margins totaled 41%, up from 38% in the prior year’s quarter. Costs and expenses came in at $24.76 billion, up 9% year-over-year. Capital expenditures, including principal payments on finance leases, came in at $13.69 billion. The company ended the quarter with $70.23 billion in cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities. Meta noted its headcount was up 11% year-over-year to 76,834 as of March 31.

“We’ve had a strong start to an important year, our community continues to grow and our business is performing very well. We’re making good progress on AI glasses and Meta AI, which now has almost 1 billion monthly actives,” said Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said.

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Outlook: Meta expects second-quarter revenue to be in the range of $42.5 billion to $45.5 billion versus Benzinga Pro estimates of $44.06 billion.

Meta expects full-year 2025 expenses to be in the range of $113 billion to $118 billion, down from prior guidance of $114 billion to $119 billion. The company anticipates full-year capital expenditures of $64 billion to $72 billion. That’s up from prior guidance of $60 to $65 billion.

“This updated outlook reflects additional data center investments to support our artificial intelligence efforts as well as an increase in the expected cost of infrastructure hardware,” the company said in the earnings release.

“In addition, we continue to monitor an active regulatory landscape, including legal and regulatory headwinds in the EU and the U.S. that could significantly impact our business and our financial results.”

Meta executives will further discuss the quarter on a conference call with investors and analysts at 5 p.m. ET.

Price Action: Meta Platforms shares were up 4.22% after hours, trading at $572.78 at the time of publication Wednesday, according to Benzinga Pro.

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