watch
now
Meta
shares
closed
up
more
than
20%
on
Friday
after
the
company
reported
a
tripling
in
fourth-quarter
profit
and
issued
its
first-ever
dividend.
Revenue
rose
25%
in
the
fourth
quarter
for
Meta
to
$40.1
billion
from
$32.2
billion
a
year
earlier.
That’s
the
fastest
rate
of
growth
for
any
period
since
mid-2021,
and
offers
further
evidence
that
the
online
ad
market
is
continuing
to
rebound.
Meta’s
net
income
more
than
tripled,
to
$14
billion
from
$4.65
billion
a
year
earlier.
The
company
is
forecasting
first-quarter
sales
to
be
in
the
range
of
$34.5
billion
to
$37
billion.
Analysts
were
expecting
revenue
of
$33.8
billion.
First-ever
dividend
Meta
said
it
would
pay
investors
a
quarterly
dividend
for
the
first
time,
announcing
a
payout
of
50
cents
a
share
on
March
26.
That
comes
after
cash
and
equivalents
swelled
to
$65.4
billion
at
the
end
of
2023,
from
$40.7
billion
a
year
earlier.
Meta
also
announced
a
$50
billion
share
buyback.
The
stock
rally
on
Friday
added
more
than
$200
billion
to
Meta’s
market
cap
and
pushed
its
total
valuation
past
$1.2
trillion.
Investors
praised
the
dividend
announcement
as
a
sign
of
the
company’s
maturity.
Meta
founder
and
CEO
Mark
Zuckerberg
speaks
during
Meta
Connect
event
at
Meta
headquarters
in
Menlo
Park,
California
on
September
27,
2023.
Josh
Edelson
|
AFP
|
Getty
Images
Ben
Barringer,
technology
analyst
at
Quilter
Cheviot,
said
it
represented
a
“symbolic
moment
and
indicates
what
a
turnaround
story
Meta
has
been
on
since
its
struggles
in
2022.”
“Mark
Zuckerberg
is
showing
that
he
wants
to
bring
shareholders
along
with
him
and
is
highlighting
that
Meta
is
now
a
mature,
grown-up
business,”
Barringer
said
in
emailed
comments.
Investors
have
also
been
focusing
on
Meta’s
moves
in
artificial
intelligence.
The
company
has
a
stake
in
the
ground
in
AI
with
its
LLaMA
large
language
model,
a
competitor
to
Microsoft-backed
OpenAI’s
GPT-4.
Barringer
called
Meta
a
“closet
AI
winner”
and
said
the
company’s
AI,
while
not
out
in
show,
“will
be
better
servicing
advertisers
and
making
the
ads
themselves
more
relevant
for
users.”
‘Year
of
efficiency’
pays
off
Meta
CEO
Zuckerberg
made
a
big
push
for
2023
to
be
a
“year
of
efficiency”
for
the
company.
Some
investors
have
questioned
the
company’s
hefty
investments
in
the
metaverse,
which
is
costing
the
company
billions
of
dollars
a
quarter.
Sales
in
Meta’s Reality
Labs unit
passed
$1
billion
in
the
fourth
quarter,
but
virtual
reality
unit
recorded
$4.65
billion
in
losses.
Meta
has
been
deep
in
cost-cutting
mode,
including
cutting
over
20,000
jobs
over
the
last
year
or
so,
in
response
to
changes
in
the
economic
environment,
Apple’s
iOS
update
and
rising
interest
rates.
Those
steps
appear
to
have
paid
off.
Meta
reported
a
doubling
of
its
operating
margin
to
41%,
and
the
company’s
expenses
decreased
8%
year
over
year
to
$23.73
billion.
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