Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc. is raking in digital ads, as its earnings attest, and Wall Street is rewarding it. The company’s stock was up more than 7% in after-hours trading Wednesday.
Meta META, +1.39% reported fiscal second-quarter net income of $ 7.79 billion, or $ 2.98 a share, compared with net income of $ 6.7 billion, or $ 2.46 a share, in the year-ago quarter.
Revenue climbed 11% to $ 32 billion from $ 28.8 billion in the year-ago quarter.
Analysts surveyed by FactSet had expected on average net income of $ 2.91 a share on revenue of $ 31.1billion.
A rebound in advertising, the monetization of Instagram and Reels, and AI-fueled ad targeting and measurement contributed to the quarter’s performance. Meta’s better-than-expected performance comes on the heels of a similarly strong quarter from Google parent GOOGL, +5.78% GOOG, +5.59% Alphabet Inc. and poor results from Snap Inc. SNAP, -14.23%.
“We had a good quarter. We continue to see strong engagement across our apps and we have the most exciting roadmap I’ve seen in a while with Llama 2, Threads, Reels, new AI products in the pipeline, and the launch of Quest 3 this fall,” Meta Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said in a statement announcing the results. AI has been an increasingly dominant story line for Meta, which has quickly shifted its focus from the metaverse. Zuckerberg said AI remains the company’s near-term focus, with metaverse poised to have a long-term impact.
“In many ways, the two are interrelated,” Zuckerberg said of AI and metaverse in a conference call with analysts. He also spotlighted the potential of Threads, a Twitter-like service that launched earlier this month with much fanfare. “When it gets to hundreds of millions of users, we’ll see how it monetizes,” he said. “It is a long road ahead.”
Meta executives forecast third-quarter revenue of $ 32 billion to $ 34.5 billion, while analysts on average were expecting $ 31.2 billion, according to FactSet.
Facebook had 2.06 billion daily active users, up 5% from a year ago, and the “family” of Meta apps — which includes Instagram — reported daily active users of 3.07 billion, up 7%.
There were blips amid the hoopla, however. Meta says it expects 2023 total expenses will be in the range of $ 88 billion to $ 91 billion, compared to the prior range of $ 86 billion to $ 90 billion because of legal-related expenses in the second quarter. And Meta’s headcount dropped 14% from a year ago to 71,469 as of June 30. Zuckerberg said Meta’s austerity program will continue into 2024.
Meta’s stock improved 1.4% to $ 298.57 in the regular session. The stock has sky-rocketed 148% so far this year, while the broader S&P 500 index SPX, -0.02% has increased 19%.