(Bloomberg) — Meta Platforms Inc. just became Wall Street's top comeback kid.
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It was just a few years ago that the Facebook owner suffered the largest market value loss in the stock market's history. However, the company has come a long way since then. On Thursday, it surprised shareholders with another impressive quarterly earnings report as the social media giant focuses on cutting costs and securing billions of dollars in profits.
The stock rose 20% on Friday to close at an all-time high of $474.99 per share. The gain added $197 billion to its market capitalization, the largest gain in market value in a single session, surpassing Apple Inc. and Amazon.com Inc.'s $190 billion gains in 2022.
“Solid execution, faster growth and greater capital structure efficiency improve the outlook from here,” Morgan Stanley analyst Brian Nowak wrote in a note on Friday.
“Meta’s AI pipeline for users and advertisers is robust, with additional tools expected to be introduced and scaled throughout 2024,” he added.
Meta, which reduced its workforce by 22% in 2023, unveiled plans for a $50 billion share buyback and announced its first quarterly dividend on Thursday, a sign to investors that it has cash to spare, and a reason for them to stick around.
While the company is making big cost cuts, it continues to invest heavily in advancing artificial intelligence, particularly generative AI, but also the enabling technologies that help power its social media products and drive its ad targeting.
– With support from Tom Contiliano and Carmen Reinicke.
(Updates stock movement at market close)
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