Facebook owner Meta was given the thumbs up by Wall Street last night after delivering better-than-expected first quarter results.
Revenues of £22.9billion were 3 per cent up on the same period last year while a second quarter sales forecast up to £26billion also beat analysts’ forecasts.
Profits however were down by 24 per cent to £4.6billion after it took a £917million hit for major restructuring as thousands of employees were laid off.
Boost: Meta revenues of £22.9bn were 3% up on the same period last year while a second quarter sales forecast up to £26bn also beat analysts’ forecasts.
Shares, already up by 68 per cent so far this year, rallied in extended trading after last night’s results.
Founder Mark Zuckerberg said Meta’s artificial intelligence work was ‘driving good results across our apps and business’.
He added: ‘We’re also becoming more efficient so we can build better products faster and put ourselves in a stronger position to deliver our long-term vision.’
The social media giant’s value suffered a huge slump as it struggled with growth last year, in part due to rising competition from Tik Tok and the withdrawal of spending from stretched advertisers.
But the shares have rallied since Zuckerberg announced in February that 2023 would be a ‘year of efficiency’ for the company after a rocky spell.
The group, whose brands also include Instagram and WhatsApp has announced a series of layoffs in recent months, resulting in 21,000 jobs being cut in total.
While Meta’s recent fourth-quarter results were slightly more upbeat, parts of the business have proven less successful for the company, pushing Zuckerberg to ‘cut projects that aren’t performing or may no longer be as crucial’.
Meta’s first quarter announcement came a day after upbeat results from Google parent Alphabet and Microsoft, which both exceeded analyst expectations.
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