An anonymous reader cites a Bloomberg report. Meta is on the verge of becoming Wall Street's top comeback kid. It was just a few years ago that the owner of Facebook suffered the biggest market value destruction in stock market history. But the company has come a long way since then, surprising shareholders on Thursday with another impressive quarterly earnings report as the social media giant focused on cutting costs and boosting profits by billions of dollars. The stock is expected to rise as much as 21% on Friday, adding about $200 billion to its market capitalization. This would be the largest single-session increase in market value, surpassing the $190 billion in gains made by Apple and Amazon in 2022.
“Solid execution, accelerating growth and improved capital structure efficiency improve the outlook going forward,” Morgan Stanley analyst Brian Nowak said in a note Friday. “Meta’s AI pipeline for both users and advertisers is robust and will be expanded with more tools released throughout the year,” he added. Meta, which cut its headcount by 22% in 2023, unveiled a $50 billion share buyback plan and announced its first quarterly dividend on Thursday, a sign that investors have cash to spare. This is the reason why investors hold back. While the company has made significant cost savings, it continues to invest aggressively in advances in artificial intelligence, not just generative AI but also behind-the-scenes technology that helps power feeds and ad targeting for its social media products. Masu.
