What Happened?
Shares of social network operator Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) jumped 12.1% in the afternoon session after the company reported second-quarter financial results that far surpassed Wall Street's expectations.
The company reported revenue of $47.52 billion, a 22% year-over-year increase that beat forecasts of $44.83 billion. Earnings per share jumped 38% to $7.14, which also topped the consensus estimate of $5.89. This growth was fueled by an 11% rise in ad impressions and a 9% increase in the average price per ad. The company noted that advancements in Artificial Intelligence helped boost its core advertising business. Meta also provided an optimistic outlook and forecasted third-quarter revenue above what analysts had anticipated. The strong results from the S&P 500 heavyweight lifted sentiment across the broader technology sector.
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What Is The Market Telling Us
Meta’s shares are not very volatile and have only had 5 moves greater than 5% over the last year. Moves this big are rare for Meta and indicate this news significantly impacted the market’s perception of the business.
The biggest move we wrote about over the last year was 12 months ago when the stock gained 9.9% on the news that the company reported second quarter results. Meta slightly beat analysts' revenue guidance expectations for the next quarter. In addition, the quarter's revenue and EPS narrowly outperformed Wall Street's estimates.
Looking ahead, the company noted it would continue investing in Reality Labs as its Ray-Ban Meta AI glasses were seeing strong traction. Overall, this quarter seemed fairly positive, and shareholders should feel optimistic.
Meta is up 30.3% since the beginning of the year, and at $780.70 per share, has set a new 52-week high. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of Meta’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $3,078.
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