Meta Shares Outperform Wall Street Expectations as Zuckerberg Pledges 'Year of Efficiency'
Shares surged nearly 20% in after-hours trading on Wednesday.
By Madeline Garfinkle •
Meta stock had a rough year as shares steadily declined in 2022, losing more than $600 billion in market value. However, after its Q4 earnings report, things could be looking up for the company.
While Meta stock declined for the third quarter in a row, the results still outperformed Wall Street expectations and surged nearly 20% in the final three months of 2022.
Meta reported about $32.2 billion in revenue for Q4, ahead of the $31.5 analyst projections. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg called 2022 a "challenging year" during the Q4 earnings call, but shared that the year concluded strong as the company made "good progress" towards delivering better results in 2023. Zuckerberg went on to emphasize the theme of 2023 as the "year of efficiency."
"I think we'll both build a stronger technology 2 company and become more profitable," Zuckerberg said. "I am very focused on doing this in a way that helps us build better products, and because of that, even if our business outperforms our goals, this will stay our management theme for the year so I think it's going to make us a better company."
Following the earnings report and Zuckerberg's pledge towards efficiency, Meta stock surged by nearly 20% in after-hours trading on Wednesday. The company predicts revenue between $26 and $28.5 billion for the first quarter of 2023, hoping to end its streak of consecutive revenue declines.
