Meta Platforms (FB); Former Facebook

[winston]

not vested

1Q Earnings

Facebook-owner Meta on Wednesday (Apr 24) said its quarterly profits soared last quarter, but worries about the cost of artificial intelligence (AI) saw its share price take a hit on Wall Street.

The company founded by Mark Zuckerberg said that net profit in the January to March period rose to US$12.4 billion with total revenue, mainly from selling ads, up an impressive 27 per cent, at US$36.5 billion.

In another potential boost to its business, by the end of the year, Meta could also start selling advertising on Threads, its text message platform similar to X (formerly Twitter).

Source: Phillips

[winston]

not vested

Meta stock plummets 15% after second quarter outlook disappoints

by Daniel Howley

A disappointing Q2 forecast sent shares of the social media giant plummeting more than 15%.

Raised the company's full-year total expenses estimate from a range between $94 billion-$99 billion to between $96 billion-$99 billion due to higher infrastructure and legal costs.

Expect its Reality Labs division to report increased year-over-year operating losses.

Meta reported earnings per share of $4.71 in the quarter on revenue of $36.46 billion. Wall Street was anticipating EPS of $4.30 on revenue of $36.12 billion.

Source: Yahoo Finance

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/meta-q1- ... 49624.html

[winston]

not vested

Meta earnings results: shares tumble 17% after hours despite beating estimates; stock down on weak revenue guidance

by Filip De Mott,Grace Kay

Source: Business Insider

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/live-upd ... 33251.html

[winston]

not vested

Facebook Parent Posts Record Sales

Meta Platforms posted record first-quarter sales, but the stock dropped 12.7% in the Wednesday aftermarket after plans to spend even more aggressively on artificial intelligence appeared to shock investors.

It increased its spending plans for the year by up to $10 billion to support infrastructure for its AI investments.

AI-fueled breakthroughs boosted its ability to target advertising despite Apple’s privacy changes that wiped out $10 billion in Meta’s 2022 revenue.

For the March quarter, revenue at Meta—which owns social platforms Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp—rose 27% to $36.5 billion from a year ago, beating expectations, as did profit of $4.71 a share.

The number of daily active people on the company’s apps rose 7% to 3.24 billion, and ad revenue rose nearly 27%.

Meta said AI was already helping to improve app engagement. More than 50% of the content people see on Instagram, for example, is AI recommended.

Head count stands at 69,329, down 10% from a year ago, and up 3% from 67,317 in December.

Meta this month released its Llama 3 large language model, saying it will be featured in apps including Instagram and WhatsApp.

For 2024, Meta forecast total expenses of $96 billion to $99 billion, with higher infrastructure expenses than in 2023, including capital spending of $35 billion to $40 billion.

What’s Next: For the June quarter, Meta forecast revenue of between $36.5 billion and $39 billion, the midpoint of which is slightly below Wall Street’s forecast.

Source: Barron's

[winston]

not vested

<Research>M Stanley: Meta (META.US) 1Q Results, 2Q Guidance Broadly in Line with Forecasts

The upper limit of Meta (META.US) 's 2Q24 revenue guidance was US$39 billion, implying room for growth of 22%, also 1% ahead of Morgan Stanley's expectations, Morgan Stanley issued a research report saying.

Morgan Stanley agreed that META should continue to accelerate its investments in AI infrastructure to realize more sustainable engagement and revenue growth.

The Company's 1Q24 results were also broadly in line with Morgan Stanley's expectations.

Based on the Company's still-strong engagement growth and Reels' increased contribution to earnings, Morgan Stanley remained bullish on the Company, and kept its target price at $550, with rating at Overweight.

Source: AAStocks Financial News

http://www.aastocks.com/en/stocks/news/ ... -news/AAFN

[winston]

not vested

Meta Platforms, Inc. (META) – 1Q Earnings

For the first quarter, Meta Platforms reported earnings per share of $4.71, which was above analysts' expectations of earnings of $4.36 per share.

This was also 114% higher than earnings per share of $2.20 in the same quarter of last year.

Additionally, revenue increased 27% year-over-year to $36.46 billion, topping analysts’ expectations of $36.22 billion.

But the dark clouds rolled in when Meta shared its outlook for the second quarter. The company noted it expects second-quarter revenue between $36.5 billion and $39 billion, falling just short of midpoint estimates of $38.24 billion.

Also, the Facebook parent announced plans to increase its capital expenditures in order to fund its AI efforts.

The company forecasts capex spending of $35 billion to $40 billion this year, up from its previous plans of $30 billion to $37 billion.

Wall Street clearly didn’t like this disappointing second-quarter forecast, and shares of META fell 11.8% on Wednesday.

Source: Investor Place

[behappyalways]

In hindsight this was the ultimate sell signal for $META
https://twitter.com/Mayhem4Markets/stat ... 9988350457


That $META earnings call was an absolute disaster. Zuck tried to convince his investors that AI is the future, when there's no real clear path to how it makes profit.
https://twitter.com/Mayhem4Markets/stat ... 3129133466

[winston]

not vested

Facebook - Stock Analyst Research
Target Price* 510.00

Meta Platforms Inc. - Solid results, but tough comparisons ahead

1Q24 results outperformed slightly, with META’s US$36.5bn revenue at the top end of its guidance range due to an acceleration in ad growth.

PATMI was above due to lower network delivery costs.

1Q24 revenue/PATMI were at 24%/25% of our FY24e forecasts.

1Q is historically the weakest quarter of the year.

+27% YoY ad revenue growth a result of increasing ad impressions (+20% YoY) and prices (+6% YoY), with AI-related content driving greater user engagement.

Higher CAPEX spending over the next two years as META develops more advanced models, and builds out its own silicon capabilities (MTIA Chip).

We keep our FY24e revenue/PATMI forecast unchanged but increase FY24e CAPEX by 10% (~US$3bn) to account for higher AI infrastructure spending.

As a result, our DCF target price is lowered to US$510 (prev. US$520), while we maintain ACCUMULATE.

Our WACC/growth rate assumptions remain unchanged at 7.1%/4.5%, respectively.

Source: Phillips

https://www.poems.com.sg/stock-research/META/

[winston]

not vested

Meta Stock: 3 Reasons This Stumble Is a Golden Buying Opportunity

By Sam Quirke

Shares have been consolidating after taking a dive after their latest earnings.

However, the fundamental and technical business case supports the long-term opportunity.

A flood of analysts also call this stock a roaring buy, and investors should be excited.

Source: MarketBeat.com

https://www.investing.com/analysis/meta ... s_headline

[behappyalways]

$META is a successful advertising company that keeps trying to pivot into other areas that often end up being cash furnaces (trying to make a mobile phone and other hardware, copying TikTok, copying Twitter, metaverse, AI, etc)
https://twitter.com/Mayhem4Markets/stat ... 7049292034