Facebook parent Meta Platforms (META) on Wednesday reported fourth-quarter earnings and revenue that topped Wall Street estimates. Revenue guidance for the March quarter came in below views amid worries over currency exchange rates and a strong U.S. dollar.
Meta’s outlook for 2025 operating expenses came in much higher than expected.
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Reported after the market close, Meta earnings rose 50% to $8.02 per share while revenue climbed 21% to $48.38 billion. Digital advertising accounts for most of Meta’s revenue.
“The company reported revenue ahead of its guidance and (estimates) with ad impressions up 6% in Q4 and average price per ad up 14%,” said RBC Capital analyst Brad Erickson in a report.
Analysts expect more artificial-intelligence-driven advertising to provide a boost in 2025.
Also, analysts projected the social media giant would post earnings of $6.76 per share on $46.97 billion in sales, according to FactSet.
On the stock market today, Meta stock rose more than 4% to 707.65 in extended trading. Heading into the Meta earnings report, shares had gained 16% in 2025 and 70% over the last 52 weeks.
Further, Meta last week said it plans to hike 2025 capital spending to a range of $60 billion to $65 billion, topping Wall Street estimates of $51.4 billion. Meta is constructing a new artificial-intelligence data center in Richland Parish, La., which will be the company’s largest to date.
Meta Stock Technical Rating
For the first quarter of 2025, Meta said it expects revenue in a range of $39.5 billion to $41.8 billion vs. consensus estimates of $41.7 billion.
For full-year 2025, Meta forecast expenses in a range of $114 billion to $119 billion vs. estimates of $111 billion.
“The company called out the main drivers of the (operating expenses) increase as infrastructure costs and employee compensation as the company adds more engineering talent,” said RBC’s Erickson.
In addition, Meta stock owns a perfect 99 IBD Composite Rating, which combines five separate proprietary ratings into one rating and reflects strength across a number of technical and fundamental metrics.
Follow Reinhardt Krause on Twitter @reinhardtk_tech for updates on artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and cloud computing.
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