Shares of Meta, Facebook’s parent company, jumped nearly 20% in pre-market trading on Thursday, buoyed by revenue that beat analysts’ expectations.
Meta’s Q4 profit dipped more than expected, but revenue beat Wall Street expectations as the multinational downgraded its full-year spending outlook and… to approve a $40 billion increase in its share buyback program.
Meta plans to cut costs by $5 billion in 2023 to between $89 billion and $95 billion, down from its earlier forecast of $94 billion to $100 billion, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg calling 2023 “the year of change.” ‘efficiency “.
The company further bolstered investor confidence by forecasting first-quarter sales above Wall Street estimates.
If pre-market gains hold, the company would add nearly $76 billion to its $401.51 billion market value. The stock has fallen around 64% in 2022.
Meta’s results also sparked a rally in other mega-cap stocks due to report quarterly results later today. Amazon.com Inc and Alphabet Inc, which owns Google, rose about 4% each, while Apple Inc rose 1.1%.
Shares of social media company Pinterest Inc rose around 5.8% after a report that the online bulletin board company was cutting its staff by 150 people, or nearly 5% of its workforce, while Snap Inc added 2%, a day after finishing nearly 10% lower after the company forecast lower revenue for the current quarter.
Rate-sensitive tech and growth stocks were also boosted by falling US Treasury yields after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell acknowledged on Wednesday that inflation was starting to ease.