Meta Platforms smashes Wall Street estimates – the stock is flying in the after-hours

One of the most anticipated earnings calls of the week is here. Mark Zuckerberg’s, Meta Platforms Inc. (NYSE:META), announced the latest results from Q4 2023 after the market closed on Thursday.

The company did not disappoint investors and topped both revenue and earnings per share (EPS) estimates, sending the stock higher.

Meta achieved revenue of $40.111 billion for the last quarter of 2023 vs. $39.124 billion expected. Revenue was up by 25% year-over-year.

EPS reached $5.33 per share vs. $4.822 per share estimate, rising by 205% from the same period last year.

The tech giant also announced its first ever dividend of $0.50 per share. The dividend will be paid to shareholders as of close of business on 22/2/2024 and will be paid on 26/3/2024. Meta plans to distribute a dividend every quarter ”subject to market conditions and approval by our board of directors.”

Company overview

• Founded: 2004
• Headquarters: 1601 Willow Road, Menlo Park, California 94025, United States
• Number of employees: 66,185 (2023)
• Industry: Social media, Social network advertising, Consumer electronics, Virtual reality
• Key people: Mark Zuckerberg (Chairman and CEO), Javier Olivan (COO), Susan Li (CFO), Andrew Bosworth (CTO), Chris Cox (CPO)

CEO commentary

Mark Zuckerberg was short and sweet in a statement to investors: “We had a good quarter as our community and business continue to grow.”

“We’ve made a lot of progress on our vision for advancing AI and the metaverse,” highlighted company’s work on AI.

Stock reaction

The stock was up by 1.19% at the end of Thursday at $394.78 per share.

Shares rose by over 14% in the after-hours trading after Meta’s results exceeded expectations. One to watch at the open Friday.

Stock performance

• 5 day: +0.41%
• 1 month: +13.73%
• 3 months: +26.99%
• Year-to-date: +11.53%
• 1 year: +109.13%

Meta Platforms stock price targets

• KeyCorp: $465
• Jefferies Financial Group: $455
• Raymond James: $450
• Citigroup: $440
• Royal Bank of Canada: $400
• JMP Securities: $410
• Wells Fargo & Company: $438
• Piper Sandler: $415
• Mizuho: $470
• BMO Capital Markets: $397
• Wedbush: $420
• Tigress Financial: $435
• Stifel Nicolaus: $405
• Barclays: $400

Meta Platforms Inc. is the 7th largest company in the world with a market cap of $1.014 trillion, according to CompaniesMarketCap.

You can trade Meta Platforms Inc. (NYSE:META) and many other stocks from the NYSE, NASDAQ, HKEX and ASX with GO Markets as a Share CFD on the MetaTrader 5 platform. To find out more, go to ”Trading” then select ”Share CFDs”.

GO Markets offers pre-market and after-market trading on popular US Share CFDs.

Why trade during extended hours?

• Volatility never sleeps. Trade over earnings releases as they happen outside of main trading hours
• Reduce your risk and hedge your existing positions ahead of a new trading day
• Extended trading hours on popular US stocks means extended opportunities

Sources: Meta Platforms Inc., TradingView, MarketWatch, MarketBeat, CompaniesMarketCap