By Chris Katje
Social media company Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META) reported third-quarter financial results after the market close Wednesday.
Here are the key highlights.
What Happened: Meta Platforms reported third-quarter revenue of $34.15 billion, which was up 23% year-over-year. The revenue total beat a Street estimate of $33.56 billion, according to data from Zenger News Pro.
The company reported earnings per share of $4.39 for the third quarter, up 168%.
The company’s third-quarter metrics include:
Family daily active people (DAP): 3.14 billion, +7% year-over-year.
Family monthly active people (MAP): 3.96 billion, +7% year-over-year.
Facebook daily active users: 2.09 billion, +5% year-over-year.
Facebook monthly active users: 3.05 billion, +3% year-over-year.
Meta’s ad impressions in the third quarter were up 31% year-over-year. The average price per advertisement was down 6% year-over-year.
“We had a good quarter for our community and business,” Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg said. “I’m proud of the work our teams have done to advance AI and mixed reality with the launch of Quest 3, Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, and our AI studio.”
What’s Next: The company shared an update on its ongoing restructuring efforts, which have totaled $1.94 billion under the FoA (family of apps) segment in the last nine months and $360 milliion in the RL (Reality Labs) segment in the last nine months.
The company said full-year expenses are expected to be in a range of $87 to $89 billion, which is down from prior guidance of a range of $88 billion to $91 billion.
Full-year 2023 capital expenditures are expected to be in a range of $27 billion to $29 billiion, down slightly from a previous range of $27 billion to $30 billion.
An early look at 2024 guidance includes expected expenses of $94 billion to $99 billion. The total is higher than 2023 due to factors including higher operating costs, growth in payroll expenses and Reality Labs growing operating losses.
The company expects 2024 capital expenditures to be in a range of $30 billion to $35 billion with investments being made in servers, artificial hardware and data centers.
Meta Platforms sees fourth-quarter revenue coming in a range of $36.5 billion to $40 billion.
META Price Action: Meta Platforms shares are up 4% to $310.19 in after-hours trading versus a 52-week trading range of $88.10 to $330.54.
Produced in association with Benzinga
