Meta shares soar on resilient revenue and $40bn in buybacks

$Meta Platforms (META.US)$ Mark Zuckerberg laid out plans to further wrestle Meta’s costs under control in what he deemed a “year of efficiency” for the social media company, as its shares jumped on better than expected sales, guidance for lower expenses and a new $40bn share buyback.
Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, reported fourth-quarter revenues of $32.2bn on Wednesday, a 4 per cent decline from the year before, but at the top end of its guidance and slightly above analysts’ estimates.
The company also cut its 2023 expenses outlook by $5bn and announced an additional $40bn for share buybacks.
Meta shares closed 17.6 per cent higher on Thursday. The gain added almost $88bn to its market value, according to Bloomberg data, largely reversing the $89bn hit at its third-quarter results amid investor anxiety over its costly metaverse bet. By midday, shares were up 25 per cent.
The fourth-quarter results present a rosier picture for Meta, which has been squeezed over the past year by the economic slowdown that prompted marketers to cut their spending, along with heightened competition from TikTok and challenges in tailoring and measuring ad campaigns following Apple’s privacy changes.
Still, its profits took a substantial knock in the quarter, which it blamed on a restructuring cost of $4.2bn in the quarter related to facilities consolidation, job cuts and the cancellation of multiple data centres. Net income in the fourth quarter dropped 55 per cent to $4.7bn, compared with consensus estimates for a drop to $6bn.