Meta shares surged 20% on Friday, after profits tripled in the fourth quarter and the company issued its first-ever dividend.
  • Meta shares jumped on Friday after profit tripled in the fourth quarter and the company issued its first-ever dividend.
    • Revenue rose 25% in the quarter for Meta, marking the fastest rate of growth for any period since mid-2021 as the online ad market rebounded.
    • Investors praised Meta’s decision to issue a dividend, a rare step for a high-growth technology company.

Meta shares closed up more than 20% on Friday after the company reported a tripling in fourth-quarter profit and issued its first-ever dividend.

Revenue rose 25% in the fourth quarter for Meta to $40.1 billion from $32.2 billion a year earlier. That’s the fastest rate of growth for any period since mid-2021, and offers further evidence that the online ad market is continuing to rebound. Meta’s net income more than tripled, to $14 billion from $4.65 billion a year earlier.

The company is forecasting first-quarter sales to be in the range of $34.5 billion to $37 billion. Analysts were expecting revenue of $33.8 billion.

    • comador
      35•5 months ago

      Instagram

      Also: What’s App, Oculus VR, Onavo, and Beluga.

    • Tarquinn2049
      14•5 months ago

      The people still using it, are the people that actually click ads, and buy the resulting products… we all know at least one person like this if not many, either in our family, or at work or whatever.

    • magic_lobster_party
      8•5 months ago

      Somebody can correct me, but if I remember correctly it’s widely used in countries such as India and Brazil.

      • @WarmSoda@lemm.ee
        9•5 months ago

        There’s entire countries that use Facebook to connect to the Internet. It’s basically thier AOL.

        • FuglyDuckEnglish
          3•5 months ago

          Wow. Never thought you could create a worse space than AoL.

            • FuglyDuckEnglish
              2•5 months ago

              And they sent free CDs, if you happened to want one for some reason,

        • MudMan
          3•5 months ago

          I keep a FB account I no longer use because in some professional circles in some countries the expectation is you’ll get contact details by sharing that.

          And I keep a Whatsapp account because where I am that’s the default messaging service for everything and everybody on all phone platforms. Businesses and institutions will reach out to you over it. School will send homework to kids over it, doctors will set appointments over it, nobody will question whether you have it, just look up your phone number on it.

          Meta won the social media wars ages ago, it’s just that some, especially in the US, didn’t notice.

    • @S_204@lemm.ee
      5•5 months ago

      Instagram, WhatsApp, occulus… I haven’t used Facebook in years, I use Meta daily though.

      • @Kecessa@sh.itjust.works
        3•5 months ago

        “least shit”

        I hate that people are using it in Canada when Kijiji exists and the experience is so much better.

    • @GissaMittJobb@lemmy.ml
      3•5 months ago

      2023 Q3 they had 3 billion monthly active users. Instagram had 2 billion monthly active users.

      Showing ads to these users is how they make so much money.

      • hannes3120
        5•5 months ago

        Those are just the biggest available ETFs and Fonds. Everyone that owns a couple of MSCI or FTSE fonds technically owns a meta stock but with one of those 3 acting as shareholder

        “Shadow Banking” and “ultra rich influence” sounds an awful lot like dog whistling to me.

        • Deceptichum
          1•5 months ago

          “Shadow Banking” and “ultra rich influence” sounds an awful lot like dog whistling to me.

          Sounds like the 1% to me.

      • FuglyDuckEnglish
        1•5 months ago

        You know when you just come out and say it like that, you sound kinda…. I dunno. Right.