Facebook parent Meta posts solid 1Q results, stock soars

Facebook parent company Meta’s first-quarter results surpassed Wall Street’s modest expectations on both profit and revenue, sending its stock soaring in after-hours trading.

Meta also reported that the monthly user base of its flagship platform — Facebook — inched close to 3 billion.

Meta Platforms Inc. said Wednesday it earned $5.71 billion, or $2.20 per share, in the January-March period. That’s down 19% from $7.47 billion, or $2.72 per share, a year earlier.

Revenue climbed 3% to $28.65 billion from $27.91 billion.

Analysts, on average, were expecting earnings of $2.02 per share on revenue of $27.67 billion, according to a poll by FactSet.

Meta said it has “substantially completed” layoffs it first announced in 2022. It announced a second round of layoffs in March.

“Our AI work is driving good results across our apps and business,” CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a statement. “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.”

For the current quarter, Meta said it expects revenue in the range of $29.5 billion to $32 billion, above analysts’ expectations of $29.45 billion.

Shares of the Menlo Park, California-based company rose more than 12% to $235.60 in after-hours trading.