Meta posts sharply higher quarterly profit, topping Wall Street’s expectations

Meta Platforms Inc posted sharply higher profit and revenue for its fourth quarter on Wednesday, thanks to higher ad revenue on its social media properties, sending its shares up in after-hours trading even as it forecast increasing expenses on its artificial intelligence efforts.

The California-based company earned 20.83 billion dollars (£16.76 billion), or 8.02 dollars per share, in the October-December quarter. That is up 49% from 14.02 billion dollars (£11.28 billion), or 5.33 dollars per share, in the same period a year earlier.

Revenue grew 21% to 48.39 billion dollars (£38.94 billion) from 40.11 billion dollars (£32.28 billion).

Analysts, on average, were expecting earnings of 6.76 dollars per share on revenue of 47 billion dollars (£37.8 billion), according to a poll by FactSet.

“We continue to make good progress on AI, glasses, and the future of social media,” chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said in a statement.

For the current quarter, Meta said it expects revenue of 39.5 billion dollars (£31.79 billion) to 41.8 billion (£33.64 billion). Analysts are expecting revenue at the high end of that range — 41.68 billion dollars (£33.54 billion).

Separately, Meta also confirmed a report that it has agreed to pay roughly 25 million dollars (£20 million) to settle a 2021 lawsuit that President Donald Trump brought against the company and Mr Zuckerberg after Mr Trump’s accounts were suspended following the January 6 2021 attack on the US Capitol.

Meta’s stock rose 13.53 dollars (£10.89), or 2%, to 690.02 dollars (£555.26) in after-hours trading.