- Meta shares rose 14% on Thursday after earnings beat Wall Street’s expectations.
- The social-media giant posted revenue growth after three quarters of declines.
- CEO Mark Zuckerberg praised AI and promised to cut costs in Meta’s “potential year.”
Shares of MetaPlatforms rose on Thursday after tech firms First quarter earnings beat Wall Street’s expectations. CEO Mark Zuckerberg has touted the tech giant’s AI plans, and the owner of Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram has promised to keep costs low as he pursues them. “Year of Performance.”
Shares of the social media titan rose 14% after the opening bell, and were trading below $239 a share at 9 a.m. ET.
Investors boosted Meta’s stock after it reported earnings of $2.20 a share after the closing hours on Wednesday, according to Refinitiv. Its revenue rose 3% year over year to $28.65 billion, reversing three straight quarters of declines.
A A post-earnings call, Mark Zuckerberg praised the company’s AI efforts and promised to rein in costs. Meta founder and CEO said AI recommendations led people to spend 24% more time on Instagram This is since the launch of TikTok competitor Reels.
He added that he plans to slow down hiring in 2023 to control costs. Meta has already laid off tens of thousands of workers in several rounds of job cuts.
“When we started this job last year, our business wasn’t doing as well as I would have liked,” Zuckerberg told analysts. “But now we’re doing this work from a position of strength.”
“Even as our financial position improves, I continue to believe that slowing hiring, flattening our management structure, increasing our company’s technology percentage and more aggressively prioritizing projects will improve the speed and quality of our work,” he added.
Meta is one of the best performing stocks of 2023. It was up 74% year-to-date before Wednesday’s strong earnings performance fueled a further rally.
If its gains hold through Thursday’s closing hours, it will add just under $80 billion to its market capitalization.
read more: Mark Zuckerberg says people spent 24% more time on Instagram after introducing Meta AI-powered reels
Watch now: Popular videos from Insider Inc.
Loading…
