Mark Zuckerberg told the world last October that he would change Facebook’s name to Meta as the company moves further into the metaverse.
Facebook | via Reuters
Facebook Parent Actions Goal jumped into extended trading on Wednesday after the company reported earnings that beat estimates even as revenue disappointed.
Here are the results.
- Earnings per share: $2.72 vs. $2.56 expected, according to a Refinitiv analyst survey
- Income: $27.91 billion vs. $28.2 billion expected, according to Refinitiv
Wall Street is also looking at other key numbers in the Meta report:
- Daily Active Users (DAU): 1.96 billion vs. 1.95 billion expected, according to StreetAccount
- Monthly Active Users (MAU): 2.94 billion vs. 2.97 billion expected, according to StreetAccount
- Average Revenue per User (ARPU): $9.50 expected, according to StreetAccount
Meta updated investors for the first time since a brutal fourth quarter earnings report in February sent the stock down 26%, its worst day. Daily active users in the fourth quarter declined for the first time, and the company forecast weaker-than-expected growth.
This quarter, Meta reported daily active users (DAUs) on Facebook that beat analyst estimates after reporting its first recorded decline in user numbers last quarter. DAUs grew to 1.96 billion in the first quarter, up from 1.93 billion in the fourth quarter.
The stock was up 13% after hours.
Still, the company fell short of estimates for monthly active users (MAUs) by 2.94 billion versus the 2.97 billion that analysts had expected.
For the second quarter, Facebook forecast revenue of $28 billion to $30 billion, below the $30.6 billion estimate of analysts surveyed by Refinitiv. The company said the guidance reflects continuing trends from the first quarter, including soft revenue growth that coincided with the war in Ukraine.
Revenue rose 7% in the quarter, the first time in Facebook’s 10-year history as a public company that growth has reached single digits.
The Facebook family of apps, including the main app, Instagram and WhatsApp, accounted for 97.5% of revenue in the quarter. The remaining $695 million came from Reality Labs, the part of the company trying to create products for the metaverse.
In the app family business, net income fell 13% from a year earlier to $11.48 billion. Reality Labs lost $2.96 billion in the period compared to a loss of $1.83 billion in the first quarter of 2021.
Facebook lowered its total spending guidance for 2022 to between $87 billion and $92 billion, down from its previous estimate of $90 billion to $95 billion. It expects most of that spending growth to be driven by its Family of Apps segment, followed by Reality Labs.
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