by Katie Paul and Akash Sriram
(Reuters) – Meta Platforms on Wednesday reported quarterly sales up for the first time in nearly a year and said it expects April-June revenue to beat expectations as advertisers favor blue chip stocks amid economic concerns.
In post-closing trading, the title of Facebook’s parent company jumped 12%, seeing its stock market value climb by more than 50 billion dollars, its quarterly turnover having also beaten the consensus.
Meta said its full-year costs could be lower than the forecast announced last month.
The strong results are part of an apparent rebound in the tech sector as a whole, after a trough that led to the loss of more than 150,000 jobs in the sector.
Alphabet and Microsoft had also reported results on Tuesday that exceeded Wall Street’s expectations.
Meta has implemented an aggressive cost-cutting plan, including restructuring its middle management teams and cutting 21,000 jobs, as group boss Mark Zuckerberg wants 2023 to be the ‘year of efficiency’ .
While massive investment is being made in artificial intelligence (AI), the tech giant has downgraded its annual spending forecast range to between $86 billion and $90 billion, down from $86 billion-92 billion. dollars previously.
Revenue of between $29.5 billion and $32 billion is expected for the current quarter, while analysts on average expected $29.53 billion according to Refinitiv data.
In the January-March period, Meta’s net profit fell to $2.20 per share from $2.72 a year earlier, but nevertheless stood above the consensus which stood at $2.03 per share. stock.
The group’s turnover increased by 3% to 28.65 billion dollars, while Wall Street was counting on 27.66 billion dollars.
(Report Katie Paul in New York and Akash Sriram in Bangalore; French version Jean Terzian)
2023-04-27 06:29:21
#Meta #Optimism #advertising #sales #title #climbs #Sciences #Avenir
